Another recent change in the boys is first indication of deviousness and scheming. Allow me to explain. Recently the boys decided that sneaking past me out of the room in the morning is fun. And it is fun, because I go after them and drag them back - for outside the room lie, among other things, the office (interesting, but full of danger), the bathroom (of many hard surfaces), the bedroom where mom sleeps, and, of course, the long, steep stairs. All great fun and allowed, but not unsupervised. Thus, the escaping, the grabbing, and the returning. Of course, there is a price to pay for the fun sometimes. For instance, on a recent occasion I had to grab both escapees at once. Ben squirmed, and got loose just as I was bringing them in for a landing. A predictable result - Ben cluncked his jaw on my leg and bit his tong. Evidently, he has enough teeth to draw blood with. He was genuinely puzzled when he went to explore his mouth (while crying, of course) and his fingers came out with red on them. Within two minutes, he was back to escaping.
What is important is that the boys understand that escaping is a game - while I am changing one of them, the other would take a step toward the door, then look back to see if I was going to come after him. If I am busy, the boys are usually content to play in the room.
Alla reported a very similar incident. While playing downstairs one of the boys initiated an unauthorized ascent of the stairs (the gate as left open). Alla grabbed him after he got a few steps up. A short climb followed by a ride on mom, you say? Awesome! As soon as crawler 1 was taken off the stairs and deposited some distance away, crawler 2 was already a couple of steps up and crawler 1 was getting ready. Grab, put down, repeat indefinitely. After peeling both of the boys off the stairs a few times Alla finally closed the gate. It should be mentioned here that the only time the boys ever show reluctance to climb, naturally, is at night when we want them to self-propel up to their room for bed.
But this is not the deviousness yet, you say! Well, hang on! A few days ago Zev and I engaged in what looked like a competitive game. I blocked the way out of their bedroom, Zev tried to get by, by going around me. Well, I am larger and can block the way. Zev would find his way blocked, laugh, and try to go around. Find me moved, turn around, repeat. The game went on to mutual delight for a few minutes and then Zev employed what was an excellent fake. No idea if it was intentional or a random event - but he went right for one step, changed direction and went left. Here my size played against me and I really had to scramble to get him. He earned it - he snuck by, was allowed to get nearly to the door and was grabbed there.
Another time Zev got hold of Ben's blanked, took it away and had a great laugh as his brother tried to get his blanky back. The laugh, I was told, was not evil, but the act sure was.
Benjamin recently has had nice displays of cunning of his own. The two "off-limits" items in the boys room are the diaper pail and the trash bin - for obvious reasons. Ah, but they are big, white, and the diaper pail has a blue handle that moves (thank you, Sergey and Rekha - your gift is in year two of use and not slowing down). Now that the boys can reach the handle - the pail beckons. Clearly, the boys know that they are not allowed to play with the two items - we pull them off routinely and, in fact, they look to check our reaction as they grab for the pail's handle. This morning Ben crawled over, heard me say "don't even think about it", and went to play with the clothing boxes - those are shaped like a frog and a monkey, are "playable", and conveniently situated right next to the forbidden items. Ben got up, started playing, looked at me to confirm it was OK... and after a few seconds lunged for the diaper pail. Well played, sir, well played.
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