Adventures in Parenting * Edited*

And so I guess I thought that I had sailed by the mischeivous behavior, because the boys are now 8 and 5 1/2 and Grace is, well, a GIRL. After all, it's boys that are the ones that do all the stuff they're not supposed to, right? Sure, the boys often "forget" to do what they're told, or not to do what they've been asked not to do...Sure, Mackenzie has the occasional slip-up and Morgan has more energy and noise than the rest of us combined, but they're overall very good and easy-going.

And then there's Grace...our youngest...our GIRL.

Here's just a quick overview of this month's mischief in this 3 1/2 year old's life:

- "accidentally" painted the toilet with nail polish after decorating her own nails, feet and legs.
- "accidentally" colored on the table...and the floor...and the wall.
- was our first child to play "Haircut" on herself. (I wasn't intending for her to have bangs.)
- stripped off all of her lower clothes one afternoon during our band practice at the church and walked, half-naked, all the way through the lobby to come and let us know she needed new clothes.
- poured almost a half gallon of apple juice on our living room rug, in an effort to get a little into her tiny teacup.
- is currently in the ER with her Daddy, with an IV, and having drunk a lovely charcoal concoction to counteract the 9 children's Gravol she chewed and swallowed in secret this morning. (She is OK, or else I wouldn't yet be blogging...we're just waiting for the charcoal to "exit" her system.)

Grace was also our first family broken bone (at age 2), and our first to attempt to catch a fish in our tank. She was the youngest to conquer a fear of water and to willingly hurtle herself off the side of the swimming pool at her very first swimming lesson. Grace is also very textural...she is inevitably the one I will find "feeling" the brown sugar, "stirring" the pudding or "decorating" with the flour.

Don't get me wrong, she is honestly a really good little girl, just...mischievous....and fearless. She has a magnetic personality and eyes that suck people right in. She is a comedien, a great singer and a beautiful little ballerina.

But she's a monkey.

When her Daddy gets her back home from the ER this afternoon, charcoal-black teeth and all, I know he'll have lots of stories of how she charmed the nurses there and how well she did for them. She generally behaves very well.

Now I'm on my way to move all of our medicine even higher...right next to the nail polish.







* Just as I suspected, Grace arrived home, her same old self, having charmed everyone with her compliance & dazzling smile. What a girl! (Praise the Lord she didn't like the charcoal drink though...hopefully a major deterrant from a repeat event!) *