Mormons are supposed to do anything for food?

One of the wonderful perks of having my parents here is they can catch me up on all the random YouTube videos they've seen. I just don't have time to peruse the web like that! Maybe someday when I retire...

This one just put me under.

Genius

I don't know how she did it, I really don't.

Liesel likes to go up on tiptoe and pull things down from the dining and kitchen tables. For a while we just put important items in the middle of the table, far out of reach. That didn't last long though because if she somehow manages to see something she really wants, she's not above climbing on a chair and precariously balancing herself to reach what she wants. More than once we've found her ON TOP of the table! She's a curious girl, for sure.

After a long and completely exhausting day yesterday, I noticed Liesel had gotten a hold of the Benadryl bottle from the kitchen table. I heard the click-click-click of the child-proof cap as she spun the lid around. Knowing it was firmly closed, I went back to what I was doing and glanced over a few minutes later. That's when I noticed the bottle was mostly empty. And she had something small and white in her tiny fist. And there was a puddle at her feet. And there was a strong medicine-y smell coming from the hall.

My 19-month old daughter managed to open a child proof bottle of Benadryl and pour all but about 10% of it on the hallway carpet, her Sunday quiet book and of course, herself. There are full-grown adults who can't even get those open! And it's not a fluke either where you push down and turn just once and voila it's open! You have to do that numerous times to get it open. She has tiny hands! She would have had to do it A LOT to get it open!!! To add insult to injury, it was the brand-new bottle of Benadryl I'd purchased that morning after a visit to the pediatrician about her ear.

Perhaps it was the way I moved my pregnant body with lightning speed to the scene of the crime that tipped her off she'd done something wrong. Suddenly she looked at the mess with an expression that said, "Oh my, how did THAT get there?" Of course the first thing she wanted was for me to hold her and I was still wearing my pricey work-appropriate maternity clothes. Oddly enough my first thought was, "Can you get high from huffing Benadryl?"

After confiscating the medicine, scrubbing the carpet to the best of my ability, bathing the culprit and salvaging the quiet book I made a few phone calls. Liesel happily played in the corner as if nothing had happened. My parents just laughed. A lot actually. I demanded to know if I had done anything like that as a kid. Of course I didn't... I didn't get in much trouble as a kid so this wasn't the universe's payback to me. I called my sister who nannied for Liesel this summer and demanded to know if SHE'D taught her how to handle a child-proof cap. She dryly responded, "Yeah, you're not going to peg this one on me." I called another sister who apologized profusely as if she had done it herself and told me, "I wish I could tell you it gets better but that would just be a lie." Then I called Brent's mother to relay my sad tale. I told her I'd confirmed with my parents this character trait wasn't coming from MY genes so I wanted an explanation for what was clearly a Wuehler issue. She quickly responded, "Brent couldn't open those things either!"

Brent had to work late and when he finally made it home he not only took charge of Liesel but he made me dinner and completely cleaned the kitchen. I'd only briefly been able to tell him what happened so I told him the whole story once we had some quiet time. He was a bit chagrined to find his mother, who usually sings paeans to his brilliance and intelligence, threw him under the bus so quickly. Liesel blissfully slept the night away while we discussed new tactics to cope with her new-found mischievousness.

I don't know how she did it. I really don't.

Aftermath

You can tell corn is ripe if it bursts and explodes when you put your nail in a kernel. You can tell you need an oil change based on the mileage and/or date from the last one. And you can tell a toddler has had a pretty rough night when she's sniffling like this in her sleep (enjoy our sound machine set to "ocean" in the background):

Liesel woke up at 4AM hysterically crying and tugging on her left ear. I had lots of ear infections as a kid and Brent tells me when he was young he was the poster child for them. Brent, Liesel and I have blue eyes which I guess is somehow related to the shape of your Eustachian tube and makes you more susceptible to them. So in the early morning hours we found ourselves sympathetically trying to remedy this pain while our little girl cried streams of tears and looked at us pleading for relief.

We immediately gave her a dose of Motrin and called the Dr to determine if we should head over Children's Hospital. Because it was just the ear, (no diarrhea or vomiting), he advised us to put her in a steamy shower for 5-10 minutes to open everything up. She was definitely better, but wide awake and still a little upset. It took her a while to go back to sleep but finally around 6:30 AM she did, sniffling away the vestiges of her troubled night.

Brent has left for work and so I'm here at home waiting for her to wake up so we can start our day. For now, I think I'll just let her sleep.

Everybody Sleeps

There's a reason we rarely let Liesel sleep with us anymore! I always get a foot in my face while Brent gets to breathe her hair. If she's even remotely awake she feels around for our faces and more than once I've been startled awake by a tiny finger up my nose.

She's a cuddler though and doesn't always sleep well alone. One day I decided to try putting my body pillow in her crib and voila! Everyone's getting an appropriate level of REM once again.

Hopefully she'll forgive me for that last droopy diaper shot someday.