1. Little Mister broke my camera right after Cat was born in 2010. I have very few pictures of Cat from the first couple years of her life. She was absolutely beautiful, still is. Someday, she'll hate me for the lack of photos of her gorgeous self.
2. My VAIO. Little Mister stepped on it, cracking the screen. It still worked, so we limped along. Then someone dumped something on the keyboard, and in an effort to clean it, *I* actually broke the space bar. Then! Little Mister tried to put it on my bed one day, threw it, and missed the bed completely. The screen went from one small crack line to 1/3 of the screen not being viewable. By this time, it needed an external keyboard as well, so we used it as a desktop for quite a while. Until Cat decided the cord would make a good jump rope a few months ago. It no longer turns on.
3. A portable DVD player I bought right before my heart surgery. Now, that sucker lasted for years, but at one point, Little Mister knocked it off the TV and the screen broke partway off of the DVD playing part, but the connections still worked so it still played ... until the last couple weeks, when the power cord gave up.
4. Another camera. They got it down and stepped on it while it was in the case. I have no idea who did this.
5. My recliner. We bought it (with the help of parents) when LM was born and I needed to nurse a lot. After Cat was born, LM decided it made a good trampoline and jumped in it until the springs in the seat snapped.
6. My phone, with camera. Cat must have thought it looked like an Oreo, because she gave it a good dunking in a cup. Dead.
There are more -- grease paints all over an unfinished cabinet, fingernail polish all over carpets and vinyl flooring, chalk painted onto the front door ... But you get the idea: KIDS BREAK STUFF.
There are all kinds of photos around the internet of things kids ruin. I did not take photos of any of these things, because my kids are evil geniuses, and #1, #4, and #6 prevented me from getting photographic proof.
What most of the websites and photos don't address is this: I wouldn't trade any of the children for any of these objects. The teen makes me insane, the 5yo is hyper and talks nonstop, the 3yo is destructive on a milder scale (breaking lots of little things like markers and pencils, or coloring all over the house, not destroying big-ticket items), and the baby is an attention hog. But I love them all and am ever so thankful they are in my life. Even when I want to throw everything we own away and start all over.
