Seriously? Seriously again?

So I've seen all these articles and chapters in parenting books about babyproofing and childproofing your home, what they don't prepare you for are the creative and sneaky ways four and two year olds think. We've had a rough couple of weeks where it seems I don't have enough eyes to keep tabs on everyone and the kids are taking full advantage of their five minutes alone.

One day while Abigail has me distracted by continually getting out of bed during her nap time, Isaac takes it upon himself to push his little tykes car over to the refrigerator and climbs on the roof to reach the cookies we keep up on top of it. I come downstairs and find him hiding in the corner and say, "What do you have?" To which he replies, "I have cookies, here one is for you."

Later in the week I am downstairs with Isaac and Indiana when I hear Abigail over the baby monitor. She is much sneakier than her brother and has learned to creap out of bed instead of running around which alerts me to the transgression. So I go upstairs and find her in Indiana's room smearing herself with petroleum jelly which she has gotten off the changing table.

Isaac has picked up a few tips from his sister too though. I found him hiding under the bed putting on deoderant.

Yet later in the week Isaac is downstairs playing and when he comes up he is wet. He proceeds to tell me he found a squirter and got water all over. I'm thinking, "Great he climbed up on the kitchen sink in the basement and got the sprayer." So he comes up and Abigail goes down and I hear her yell that the cars are all wet. This is  not consitent with the kitchen sprayer theory so I go to investigate. Isaac had found some bug spray that had been left up in the kitchen and had sprayed the entire basement. So I immediately strip him and Abigail and Indiana, just for good measure, and throw them all in the shower. Jake gets home and takes over bathing while I go to the basement and clean every toy and throw out several puzzles and stuffed animals that have taken on too much bugspray to even salvage. I then shampooed the carpets twice.

And today I'm upstairs with the kids. Indiana is playing in Isaac's room with the other two so I go in there to supervise. Well Isaac and Abigail go to play in Abigail's room and a few min later I notice it is eerily quiet in there so I go to check it out. Unfortunately as soon as I exit Isaac's room I know something is wrong, there is a strong odor in the air that is not normally in the house. I walk the few steps to Abigail's room and see Isaac and Abigail dunking their toys in Vick Vap-O-rub. Great! This shower takes a bit longer, that stuff is hard to get off. And their hair is still a little greasy.

So what is up with my kids? How is it they are finding all this stuff that hasn't been moved in months or years and all of a sudden they are drawn to it and feel like making such messes? Nothing is safe and I can't even figure out what to lock up because they are finding such random stuff. Oh well, I guess this too shall pass.