Thank you, Disney. Thank you.

This happened in May of 2010 ... but I believe that in order for people to understand the things that happen now, we need to delve into the past. So, we are backtracking for the first few posts so that everyone can get caught up on my little hellions.


Our youngest son was 3 years old at the time of this stunt. He absolutely loved Handy Manny. For the un-parents out there, Handy Manny is a cute show on the Disney channel that shows the life of this fix-it guy, his tools talk, that whole thing. Anyway, he loves Handy Manny so much that my parents -  the wonderful grandparents that they are - gave him a little Handy Manny tool set and my little sister gave him a HM tool belt and the little hat and gloves.


So my kid gets all of this stuff out and he's just playing - and actually behaving himself, so I go to do some laundry that I am perpetually behind on. Well, after maybe 5 minutes, I notice that he is being really quiet. (When a child gets quiet, find them. They are probably using their little ninja skills to be as quiet as possible in order to do something that they know they shouldn't be doing.) So I go sniff out my little monkey and see what in the world he is doing. I go into his bedroom and I see him playing on the floor with about 10 tiny screws.


At this point, I'm really starting to get worried. Screws that I've never seen and the little one is paying me no attention. I start looking around his room and notice that the cover to the light switches has been taken off. Oh my gosh. Then I notice the little pile of the covers next to him under his tool box.


He had used his Handy Manny tools to take off the light switch covers in the hall and in his room.


Now, lets be honest. I check for excessive amounts of lead in toys, I check for choking hazards. Never in my wildest dreams would I have checked to see if plastic tool toys would actually work on a real screw. But they do.


It was really hard scolding him after this because for a 3 year old to have the hand-eye coordination to do this is actually amazing and he was so proud of himself.


I now check to see what toys might be used for - even if it sounds nuts, your kids will come up with it!