Two Stories

of the child-rearing type...

1. The kids came in from the playground behind our house, which was still a little muddy, so we had to strip off a lot of clothing, including all of Jake's, who needed a diaper change anyway. I had thought earlier that I smelled a dirty diaper but didn't find him wearing one. Lately he's figured out how to remove a diaper when that's all he's wearing, and he started to do so as soon as his clothes came off. Annika helped him and he ran off naked, which isn't a brand new thing as of late. A few minutes later, coming through the kitchen, I smelled poo again and stopped. That was a good thing, since another step would have put my foot right in a pile that Jake so nicely left in the middle of the kitchen floor. Annika was nearby at the table, oblivious to the dirty deed done on the floor. We all had a good laugh and I cleaned it up. I can only imagine the scene of Jake leaving the pile there on the floor. The same night...

2. It was bedtime and I was reading a book to Abby while Annika brushed her teeth and got her jammies on. Afterwards she headed back downstairs, where she had been doing homework. I heard a chair squeak and figured she had sat down to do some more, which was fine with me. However, a few minutes later she returned and headed up to the top bunk. I wasn't quite paying attention to her, but a moment later my dad-radar went off and it occurred to me that she had been walking a little suspiciously when she came in the room.

"What are you hiding?"
"Nothing."
"Then why were you walking funny?"
No significant answer.
And then my dad-intuition rewarded me handsomely: "Give me the candy."
Annika, wearing one-piece jammies with feet, starts unzipping, all the way down to her feet, where she pulls out five Hershey's kisses! Smuggler!

A few things had come together quickly in my mind: candy wrappers discovered under a pillow a few days before, candy that had just recently been put on top of the fridge, and one squeak, which was the sound of a chair being moved over to the fridge. Busted! No wonder the girl was up past 11:00 reading the other night - it was probably chocolate.