Lux et umbra vicissum…

My two year old has apparently learned the fine art of lulling mommy into a false sense of security. The darling child will go for several days without getting into any real trouble. She’ll color only on the coloring books and papers available for such things, she’ll nicely look at books that are available, and she won’t go into a bathroom without company. Then, when she knows I’m not watching as closely, she’ll strike.

Some days she has a three year old accomplice. There was one day when we realized that we weren’t sure where they were, and we found them in the bathroom. With a lot of water. And it wasn’t from the sink or the tub. And they seemed to be using the cup we used for rinsing hair in the bathtub to get said water.

Then there was the day I discovered that she had decided to move on to wall murals. Typical two year old activity, but she had been so good before then! She also colored on a puzzle and a couple of reading books before I caught her.

Yesterday had been an exhausting day. We made it through just fine with God’s help, but everyone was tired by the end. I was trying to pick out clothes for the kids while Joel gave some of them baths. I heard Joel walk into the girls’ room, and suddenly I heard his voice change. Somehow it got lower. And it said, “Go to your room. You’re getting a spanking.”

Now, though we spank the kids, it doesn’t happen terribly often these days. They’re pretty good kids, and there are other forms of discipline we use (such as vinegar… I’ll have to write more about that sometime). So I was very curious what had just happened.

I walked to the door of the room and said, “What’s going on?” Joel, looking somewhat frazzled and dumbstruck, pointed in the room and said, “Look.”

Alexis has a leap pad. Leap Pad plus Writing, to be specific. It was given to her a couple of years ago by her grandparents, and all of the kids (other than Eli) love to play with it. They’re all very good with it. Really. Even Charis. But for some reason, this time in particular she decided to see how many pieces she could tear one of the leap pad books into.

In the category of really dumb things to ask a two year old:

“Do you know how much those things cost????”

“What were you thinking????”

“How could you do this?????”

“Do you know how long it’s going to take me to fix this???????”

So last night found me with scotch tape and many many pieces of book. I’ve, miraculously, gotten all of the pages back together individually, but I haven’t figure out yet how to get them back into book form since they’re originally spiral bound. They have to be together so that they sit right on the leap pad thingy for the sensors or whatever to work. *sigh*

Charis is now banned from her sisters’ room, the bathrooms, and anywhere else that happens to make me nervous. We’ll see how long it takes this time for her to convince me of her pure, sweet innocence.

Post Script… Eli just shut her in the toy box.  I suppose that’s another way to keep track of her.