Mischief Managed

I think I have mentioned before that Hobbes is quietly mischievous.  He can get into trouble better than any other kid.  I'll put money on it.  He wanders away and silently goes about doing whatever he puts his mind to.  He helps himself to items in my bag.  He helps himself to food in the kitchen.  He wonders what those buttons will do, and figures it out for himself.  Here are some examples:

A while ago, I moved my gum stash to my bedroom because Hobbes had gotten into it.  (It was in one of the upper kitchen cabinets.)  The new hiding place, the top shelf of our closet shelving, hasn't deterred him.  See this picture?  I took it from the edge of the dining room.  If you look closely, you can see my open bedroom door, and beyond that, my open closet door.  He pushed that bar stool all they down the hall, into my bedroom, and then turned into my closet to try to get some gum.  I'm certain that he had to open both doors.  That's a long way for a small guy.  He sure is determined.  What a kid won't do for some gum!

I also think that was the night he turned off the heat.  (In the picture above, I positioned the stool right under the thermostat.  This would have been easy for him, since it's right on the way to the bedroom/gum.)  We had one night this week when it was something like -27 degrees F. outside.  Spiff and I woke up in the middle of the night and discovered that our house was freezing!  We keep our thermostat at a low temperature, but this seemed extreme.  After some investigation, Spiff realized that Hobbes had pushed some buttons and reset the thermostat from "heat" to "cool".  It was currently 50 degrees in our house!  And colder in the basement.  Spiff promptly turned the furnace back on (it ran constantly for 8 hours or so), and we went back to sleep grateful that we didn't have frozen pipes.

I had a rehearsal at my house yesterday.  The boys did a great job, but it was long, and Hobbes got bored.  He wandered away, and I while I rehearsed, I wondered what he was up to, knowing that I couldn't do anything about it right at that minute.  When the song was over, I excused myself and went in search of the small mischief maker.  I found him in Daddy's office doing this:

Pencil can up-ended.

Containers of pencil led dumped out...all. over. the. desk.  And the floor.

Later, I told Spiff about it, and he said, "He did it again?!"

I haven't cleaned this up yet.

Lately, I have found him standing on our washing machine.  I have found him sitting at Spiff's desk playing on the computer, which was closed and put away.  He started our dishwasher the other day after pushing some buttons.  His absolute favorite thing to do is to lean over the kitchen counter so that his body weight is supported, and then push his chair out from under him so that he is literally hanging from the countertop.  He then calls for help.  I usually don't hurry to his aid because I know he can hoist himself up onto the counter if he needs to.  I also know that he'll just push the chair away again as soon as I rescue him.  What a weird game.

I bet he's got a Marauder's Map hidden under his mattress.  I also bet that he is quietly and steadily crossing off items from his giant bucket list of Trouble to Get Into.