Do I kiss him, or do I strangle him?

You know, children are such beautiful things. Their innocence and complete openness is admirable and endearing. As they grow you see this gradually disappear, and for me the farewell to purity is a sad one. I have always held the opinion, however, that the only reason the human race still exists is that their children are so damn cute that they can't kill them. Nikolai seems to have entered this challenging phase lately.
He began his time here on Earth with such a sweet and quiet and peaceful disposition. He was always curious yet careful. He has been afraid of nearly everything at one point in time, but faces his challenges with a determination to conquer. Since he turned three that's all different.
Now, he is constant motion. He is constant noise and constant challenge. I find the only times I smile fondly at his innocent sweetness is when he's asleep. If I want to keep things clean around the house, I have to follow him around at a three year old pace and clean things in his wake. He's like a tornado. A really really noisy tornado. Ever heard of Dennis the Menace? Well, that's Nikolai these days, although a good portion of the time he's not doing things as innocently as Dennis did.
For the first few years of his life he was a little Matthew. Now, he's a little Rebecca. I prayed this wouldn't happen.