I Need Another Degree

...this one in Child Psychology. 'Cause my English degree just isn't cutting it. I need to understand WHY IN THE WORLD my kids, but specifically Nick, do things like this: I snapped this picture without knowing what they were doing. They'd been in my closet for a while, and it was way too quiet, so I knew they were up to something. I just grabbed the camera, opened the door, and took a shot. And for your information, Nick's NOT sitting on some sort of clothing-covered stool. That's a pile of clothes and shoes. See that somewhat sparse closet rod behind him? That's normally bursting full, and the shelf above it is piled with jeans and sweatshirts and the like. Immediately after I snapped this picture, Nick started to cry (you can sort of see the fear in the picture), with pleas of "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make a big mess! We'll clean it up!" This leads to my reasoning that I need a psychology degree. I know kids make a lot of messes, and get caught up in having fun and all. But I can't figure out why he makes such a GIANT mess, when he knows he's going to get in trouble/have to clean it up. This is not a rare occurance. He makes a mess on this scale almost once a day--obviously, based on his afore-mentioned comments. He knows the drill. He knows he has to clean it up. I just wish I didn't have to hear him whine about cleaning it up, you know? Do they make an anti-whining pill or something? I've tried earplugs, but they're just not cutting it. And as I was typing the above, I happened to look over at Nick, who was sitting on my bed with David's sippy cup, dripping milk out onto my sheets. So now I'll be sleeping in semi-spoiled milk smelling sheets, because I'm just too dang tired to change them right now. Man, I admire people who have 10 kids. Maybe they're the ones that have degrees in Child Psychology.