Tearing my hair out!

This week has been a long one. Or at least it's felt that way. I'm not sure whether it's school holidays and work on the house that have all combined to turn my delightful Muddy Puzzler into a Muddy Wrecking Ball. Maybe it's that she's now competing for attention with the Organiser and the Pixie who are home from School and Preschool. Maybe it's that she knows she's only got a few months left of the terrible two's and she's going to make the most of it. Maybe it's the work I've been doing on the house that I've been neglecting her and she's a bit bored. Maybe she's tired of the games we're playing and we need to mix it up a bit. Whatever it is, it has me tearing my hair out, quite literally, as I pull paint out of it that's been splashed in it by my Muddy Puzzler.

This week alone she has wreaked havoc in my household and shredded my patience with the following activities:

• Tipping over a 10L tin of paint that Muddy Hubby had failed to seal fully, resulting in a big pile of paint to clean up and get splashed around (hence the paint in the hair)
• Emptying Muddy Hubby's aftershave all over herself so she still smells like Chanel Allure for Men 3 days later
• Painting toothpaste all over the new bathroom walls and door, I'm told she was trying to polish it
• Painting toothpaste all over the bedroom carpet (not sure how she got hold of the toothpaste)
• Losing the key to the local tip, so we can't take the rubbish and recycling to the tip until we find it
• Running the water tap in the bedroom for a good while while I fed Muddy Bubby, depleting our rain water tanks which are getting a bit low
• Climbing the painting ladder and falling off the top (I only turned around for a second!)
• Sneaking the sticker book into the car and decorating the interior with stickers
• Spraying Muddy Hubby's deodorant all over our bedroom, including the photo frames
• Spreading the Muddy Organiser's Lip Smacker all over her face (resulting in tears for the Muddy Organiser)
• Pulling all the photo frames down in her bedroom and pulling out all the photos
• Stamping the office 'Paid' stamp all over herself and the office (not sure how she got it down from the top shelf)

Today topped it all off for me, she decided that her Baby Brother needed a little bit of attention, after she had finished colouring in her toenails in blue texta and decorating her lips with red texta she decided to draw on Muddy Bubby with blue texta. I don't think he minded, but it probably isn't the best of looks when we go out for a play date tomorrow.


Proud to show off his decorated face to Muddy Hubby when we ducked up the paddock

We have headed outside whenever we can to let the Muddy Kids run off some energy and have some fun in the sun. My plan at the moment is to keep her within a couple of metres and eyesight at all times (not really sustainable though) and to spend the remaining few days of holidays outside, where there is only a minimal amount of mischief that she can get into, surely?!?!?

Come on, please tell me she's not the only one getting into mischief?

Do you have any tricks for keeping kids busy and out of mischief, please share if you do!