Parenting Mistakes

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  I'd like to think that most of the time I learn from my parenting mistakes, and most of the time, I do. 

Like the time Noah was about 12 months old, and I left him alone in his "child-proof" room while I unloaded the groceries. I checked in on him after about five minutes of playing alone only to find him tearing off pits of foam from a NERF football with his front teeth and eating them.  He had swallowed about four big hunks of hot pink foam from what I could tell before I was able to stop him.  Thank the Lord there was no choking involved, and he passed the foreign objects the next day.  Ick!

Or the time when we were still living in Miami.  After a particular harrowing trip to Publix, I wrangled Noah into his carseat with the promise of a movie for the two-block drive home.  It wasn't until I arrived in the parking garage of our building to unload groceries and Noah that I realized I had not strapped him into his carseat.  How scary!  I will not make that mistake again! 

But recently two mistakes have managed to repeat themselves much to my chagrin.

First, one week after we moved into our shiny and new house, I had of course made a huge Costco run.  Included in my purchase was a 1.5 liter bottle of wintergreen Listerine.  I was busy in our master bathroom unloading purchases when I hear the gushing sound of liquid.  I rush to the sound coming from our closet thinking that a call to poison control might be in order, only to find Noah pouring the entire 1.5 liter bottle of Listerine onto the carpet in our closet.  It took me two rolls of paper towels and lots of elbow grease to mop up all that minty freshness.  It must not have been too painful for me because I had to repeat the exercise last week on the bedroom carpet with a fresh 1.5 liter bottle of wintergreen Listerine.  Looks like we will no longer be buying mouthwash in bulk, although our bedroom does smell pretty fresh these days. 

Apparently, I put too much faith in my child, thinking that if he is corrected for something once then he won't do it again.  I was wrong.  He first colored on the wall in our apartment in Miami.  It was his first time using colors.  With his penchant for red, I walked out of the kitchen to find the door to his room covered in it.  That was over eight months ago, and he has never done it again.  In fact, some days red or pink colors are his stick of choice to carry around.  And, he has never written on the wall since... well, you know what that say about saying never.  This weekend, during "naptime," I walk into his room to find red color covering the wall behind his crib.  Sigh.  Looks like I'll be heading to the store for some magic erasers, and it looks like colors are no longer allowed without a desk and some paper.