Little Stinker

He's not even nine months old yet, but he already knows how to push my buttons!

Nicholas NEEDS to get out of the house every day or else he goes stir-crazy. Days when I push the outing back a few hours, he will start whining and pawing at my legs like a little puppy that needs to go out OR.... he will tease me.

Today he was in a teasing mood. There are only two things that I tell him continuously not to do. 1. touch the floor lamp (he's knocked it over so many times it's all dented and will only turn on with enormous force)
2. put things in his mouth--- especially paper.

He's come to recognize the pattern: touch the lamp, see Mom's funny reaction, continue to touch the lamp, get picked up and carried away. Or: eat paper, mom will take it away and put her fingers in my mouth.

So what does he do? I was on the couch returning an important e-mail when he crawled off down the hallway. He does NOT usually do this--- he doesn't like to crawl out of sight--- so I expected him to come crawling back around the corner any minute. But he didn't....uh-oh...and it was silent...UH-OH. I quickly got off the couch and scurried around the corner to see him sitting in the doorway of Mando's office (a place he knows he's not really supposed to go...that and the bathroom) WAITING for me! I kid you not! He saw me, gave a little squeal, turned his back to me and bolted straight for the lamp. Then he sat right next to the lamp with his hand hovering next to it, but not touching it--- like Nemo when he's about to touch the boat. He just looked at me and waited for me to say something with this huge grin on his face! Little stinker. When I didn't say anything, he grabbed the lamp and then looked right at me and paused again.... I was a little curious to see what he would do, so I didn't say anything right away. So he took the other hand and grabbed the lamp, paused, and looked at me again! Finally I gave him what he wanted and said, "Nicholaaaaas...." and looked at him with me stern expression. He laughed and immediately started clapping his hands.

Later that afternoon I was in my bathroom brushing my teeth while Nicholas played in our bedroom with a puzzle. From the bathroom you can see the foot of our bed and the rug where his puzzle was, but you cannot see the head of the bed or the nightstands. While I spit, I saw Nicholas disappear behind the bed from the corner of my eye. He crawled over to my nightstand, grabbed a piece of paper which I foolishly left in reach, crawled ALL the way BACK to the foot of the bed, sat down facing me, and held the paper up for me to see. Then he sloooooowly put the paper toward his mouth, eyes on me the whole time. I said, "Nicholaaaaaas...." and he smiled and took a huge bite out of the paper. I said, "What do you haaaaaave?" And he laughed and stuck out his tongue with the paper sitting on it and waited for me to come and fish it out of his mouth!

I was shocked at how he was taunting me! It was pretty hilarious :)