Lesson NOT Learned

Everyone knows that children make mistakes, and then learns from them. That just doesn't seem to be the case for MY children. One example of this, is Matthew. Back in September he put an old cell phone in the microwave and set it on fire by turning the microwave on. Nothing like seeing flames through the window.

I thought Matthew learned his lesson, because it's definitely not a day I think he will ever forget. I also learned about the locking feature on all microwaves. It's too bad I didn't learn of it BEFORE that day. Needless to say, I made sure it was always locked after that. I never let him see how I locked and unlocked it, for fear of him figuring it out.

I think it was November when Matthew killed my cordless laser mouse. I swear it wasn't me, so I will blame the nanny for this one. The microwave must not have been locked, and Matthew put the mouse in the microwave and started it. Once again he had an audience of co-conspirators, but someone stopped the microwave after 3 seconds. THANK GOD! Robert and Noah came running to me and ratted out their brother immediately. For the record, 3 seconds is long enough to kill a mouse, and make it smell up my entire house, but not long enough to have it engulfed in flames.

Awhile back I learned a valuable lesson from my nanny. I automatically preheat the oven before I bake something. One day I got a rude awakening when I realized there was a horrid smell was coming from the oven. My nanny used the oven as a storage place for some baking sheets and a cutting board. The cutting board was melting in the oven, but luckily it was pretty easy to clean up. From that point on, I always check to make sure the oven is empty before I preheat the oven. I, too, started putting cookie sheets in there instead of where they should go, because it was a fight to get them back in the cabinet. She was going to do it, why not just join along!

On the last day of January, I got ready to make chicken nuggets. I had cooked the previous night, and being the lazy person I was, I had left the cookie sheet on top of the stove. So I just went ahead and preheated the oven, I knew it was empty. I then proceeded to dry my hair and brush my teeth. When I returned to the kitchen, I had horrible flashbacks. The smell emanating from my oven was hideous. Matthew strikes again. At some point after dinner and before I attempted to make lunch, Matthew had put a Leapster game in the oven. That's a good place for a game, right?





Once again, the other two boys must have witnessed it and tattled on their brother just a little too late. That smell lingered around for days. I still smell it a little every time I preheat the oven. I give Matthew a dirty look and he just flashes me that one tooth smile with squinty eyes. He thinks that cute face will get him out of trouble everytime, but boy is he wrong. Everytime he does something wrong like that, his hands cover his rear and he marches himself into time out before I have a chance.