Toddlers

Have you ever listened to yourself speaking to a toddler (or any child, for that matter) and realized you're saying things you NEVER thought you'd say? Lady's been a bit of a mischief-maker lately and I've found myself saying the most interesting things to her.

Here are a few of the recent ones:

"We don't eat dog food."

"We don't eat markers."

"We don't try to pull other peoples' eyelashes out."

"We don't open our mouths and let the dog lick our tongues."

"We don't fingerpaint on the walls with food."

"We don't draw on the walls or floors with pencils, crayons, or markers."

"We don't eat chapstick."

"We don't wash our hair with the dog's water."

"We don't sit in the dog's water bowl."

"We don't dump out all the puzzles at once, scatter the pieces everywhere, and then walk away."

"Mascara is NOT lipstick."

"We don't take things out of Mommy's and Daddy's drawers (deodorant, toothpaste, combs, brushes) and hide them where only you can find them again." (Moving is going to be like going on a treasure hunt....I'm sure we'll find plenty of things we never thought we'd see again.)

"We don't chew on spatulas and then put them back in the drawer."

These are just from the past few days. I'm sure if I put more thought into it I'd be able to come up with hundreds more (especially if I thought back to when all the kids were at this stage).

But so help me, I can't stay mad at her too long. She looks up at me with those big, blue eyes and I melt.

Just today, after I made the statement to her about fingerpainting with food on the wall, Roo said to me, "But you're going to forgive her, right?"

Me: with as serious a voice as I could muster "Why should I forgive her? Shouldn't I stay mad at her forever and ever? That's a big mess I'm going to have to clean up."

Roo: with chastisement in his voice "Mommy.....she's just a baby. She doesn't know any better. You HAVE to forgive her."

Where do you think he heard that?

Although I didn't get pics today of the beautiful art created on my wall with avacado and ranch dressing, here are some pics of when she sat in Ruby's water bowl.



And here are the big, blue eyes I have such a hard time resisting. :)

What have you found yourself saying that you never thought you would?