And this is how it is.

Chase is at this moment moving water from the dog's water bowl to the dog's food bowl, using the dog's food scoop. Luckily, there is no food in the food bowl, but since he has in the past moved food from the food bowl to the water bowl, I know the dog actually prefers dog food soup.

A little over an hour ago, he locked himself in the bedroom. The bedroom to which we have no key. Luckily, he also UNlocked himself in the bedroom, while Mama was frantically trying every key in our odd-key box and calling our-neighbor-the-carpenter.

In between locking himself in the bedroom and creating his own water toys, he had me make a plastic bottle and dried bean shaker..which he opened and ate at least one dried bean and put the rest goodness-knows-where; he tripped over the babygate threshold rushing to say "hi" to Dada (who was on the phone); he amused himself by pushing the stroller in circles in the garage; he got mad at me for folding laundry instead of eating the mushy waffle he was pushing in my face; and he took all the pillows out of the laundry cupboard.

This is life with a toddler.

This is how it is nearly every day. Granted, this day held a bit more drama than most; I don't usually worry about how much of my house I'm going to have to take apart to "save" my son. But the busyness, the swing of emotions? That's there, always.

It's a wonderful thing to be able to stay home with my toddler, to hear him say, "Oh no! Oh no! Mommeee? Momeee? Oh no!" when something doesn't work the way he wants (like just now, when he got his pants wet). He changes so much. Every day. New words, new skills, new behavior...same amazing little boy.