Danger!? I Laugh in the Face of Danger! Hahaha!

Sam is kid number four.  It seems that would mean I'm calmer and have pretty much seen it all.  My gross-out threshold is pretty high.  I don't freak out when I find him playing in the toilet (he thinks it's his own private swimming pool); I wash his hands and send him on his way.  He shovels in the dog food and I just watch to make sure he doesn't choke on it.  He stands naked in the middle of the dining room table and gets his groove on and I just shrug, hoping he won't do on the table what's meant for his diaper.  After enduring his three older siblings through this stage my standards have sunk to an all-time low.  But here's the rub:  Sam is the most destructive, dangerous, kamikaze toddler I've ever seen.  He can not sit still to save his life.  His favorite hobby is climbing on, well, everything.  I've adopted the attitude to let him do what he wants as long as the consequences are only bumps and bruises and not ER visits.  Sam has not yet adopted my way of thinking.  

Case in point:  I was in the living room and Sam was in the kitchen, which I can see from the living room.  I lost sight of him for just a couple minutes during which he was too quiet.  I walked into the kitchen to find he had pushed a chair up to the counter and discovered an apple next to the knife block.  This knife block has been on the counter through three kids and has remained untouched.  Sam was sure there was something he could do with these shiny objects with the handy handles.  Behold!  Sam's work of art and mom's source of heart failure.  When I walked in he was trying to find a place to stick the butcher knife.

 

The knife block now faces the wall, making it impossible for a short little man to pull out the knives.  But he, refusing to be outdone, spent the rest of the day trying to push his chair up to the gas range to play with the knobs.

At the end of the day, all of us were miraculously and completely unscathed.  I hope our luck holds - it's all we have left.