Brendan's binge

So, the past couple of weeks we've noticed some real growth in Brendan's maturity level. When he puts his finger in an electrical socket and we tell him "no" he'll look at us and move his hand away for a few seconds before he touches it again. Also, instead of grabbing handfuls of puffs to eat, he only takes two or three at a time. He's even learned to go to bed without getting a bath every night.

So with all this growth and maturity we decided that Brendan was old enough and mature enough to stay at home by himself for the night. Valerie and I decided it had been too long since we'd been out on our own. So we gave it a try. That night we left Brendan with his favorite frozen dinner in the freezer to make for himself (Swanson's Hungry Man dinner with chicken fried steak, corn, mashed potatoes, and a brownie cube). We put his favorite DVD in (Cool as Ice starring Vanilla Ice), and left him strict instructions not to have any parties and to stay out of trouble. What happened next came as a complete shock to us. After Valerie and I had enjoyed a nice evening out at Chili's and later the movies (Enchanted, my choice), we came home to a scene that left both of us in utter disbelief. Brendan had gotten into the whipped cream, against our orders, and by the time we found him he had consumed the whole can. Words can't describe what we saw and how we felt. Oh, Brendan. Needless to say we grounded him immediately. No cell phone. No video games. And he has to ask before can get in the refrigerator.