Miss Messy...

There seems to be a strange shift in personality around the age of two. A new curiosity for life and how things work gives birth to experimentation. A squeeze of the toothpaste tube. Flushing a ginormous wad of toilet paper (it doesn't work...just an fyi). Tipping over the dog's water bowl. Removing each wet wipe from its packaging. Using marker as a tool of artistic expression on one's body. Licking the windows. Eating play-doh. Macaroni and cheese hair-dos. Running water in a sink until it reaches the brim (don't ask).

My observation of all these experiments has lead me to one hypothesis: My daughter is a messy, tricky, sneaky little thing. She sets to work and upon completion of her task, claps her hands together and exclaims "WOW!"

She spends her day undoing. And while the 'Pollyanna' in me wants to believe that her motives are pure, I can't help but look at the mess before me and think she had been scheming for a while to achieve something that clever. Success is when preparation meets opportunity. She is very...successful.

With holiday travel comes lots of preparation on my part. Baking, cleaning, laundry, packing. She knows my weakness and tendency toward distraction. So, when I left my neatly folded basket of laundry unattended to answer a question my sweet hubby had, this is what my little opportunist did:

               All. Over. The. Floor. I gasped, and her reply? "WOW!"

                                              wow.

She was 'trying' on clothes and flinging the cast-offs that didn't make the cut. Which pretty much meant everything except for a pair of the little Mr.'s stripped pajama pants that she chose to wear as a bolero:

I tried to remove the pants, but she screamed in protest, so she wore her makeshift bolero the rest of the evening until bath time. Whatever. Choosing my battles. We are nearing the 'terrible twos'...four months until B-Day to be exact. Until then, I am accepting the challenge and trying my hardest to match her sly motives and thwart her advances. Eva-9. Mommy-0

Photo courtesy: http://www.weirdspace.dk/RogerHargreaves/MrMessy.htm