“Mommie, come look!” Beaming proudly David takes me by the hand, and leads me into the hallway.
“Um?” I’m not sure what he’s showing me.
“I made a trap. For Wade.” Excitedly he explains the contraption to me. “See, I sat the basket up like this, and put these toys in here. I hide around the corner, and when Wade crawls in there to get the toys out I pull this string, like that, and the basket falls on top of him and traps him.”
“Oh.” It’s hard not to smile at his cleverness. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“TV.”
“Of course. You know you did a really good job making that trap, and I have no doubt it works, but I really can’t let you trap your brother.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s just not nice.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get some food.”
“Why?”
“Well, if I can’t trap Wade, I can trap the dogs. I need food to get them to crawl in the basket.”
“You are way too smart for your own good. No, you can’t do that to the dogs either. And before you even try, don’t go outside and make a fire with two sticks. I know you saw that on TV too.”
15 minutes later…
“Mommie! Look. It worked. Wade’s under the basket!”
“What? Get him out of there! I told you not to do that.”
“I had to try it just once to see if it worked.”
“I want you to take that trap down, then go to your room. You’re getting a time-out for disobeying me.”
Not long after the time-out ends…
I hear “Whaaaa! Whaaaa!” coming from David’s room.
Running down the the hall I yell, “Wade! Wade, what’s wrong?”
David is in his loft bed. A rope wrapped around the rail trails down to a laundry basket dangling six inches off the ground. Wade is in the basket.
David is trying to hoist Wade to the top of his bed using a ope and pulley system he rigged up.
“Oh, my word!” I exclaim as I rush to rescue Wade from the basket. “What do you think would happen if Wade fell out of the basket? He could break his neck! The baby stays on the ground, and out of laundry baskets. Give me that stuff. No more rope. No more baskets. No more educational TV. Go watch SpongeBob, and fry your brain!”
And they say kids don’t learn anything from watching television.
Poor Wade! David is way too smart for his own good!
hahahaah!! your little boy is such a clever fellow!!!!! that is positively priceless!!!
So funny…and true!
I’m surprised my kids haven’t come up with more stuff like that, cause they watch discover and MAKE magazine podcasts and my husband has tried to teach them how to make robots.
My oldest son did, however, come home from invention camp with plans to build a “helper bot” that included a working drill and buzz saw (no, they didn’t actually teach him how to make that…the “plans” were just a picture and a dream). I told him a firm NO on that….and suggested he make a bot that could pick up his toys, as that would be more “helpful.”
ok..i’m sorry, but i am LAUGHING at this! it is hilarious. i’m sure not so much in the moment. wow! he is so stinking smart! someday you’re going to tell his friends this story when he is graduating with honors and a doctorate in engineering or something. 😉
That is TOO funny. Smart little guy. So glad Wade didn’t get hurt. But what a clever big brother!