The Testing Game

"I love the terrible twos, I love the terrible twos, I love the terrible twos!" I keep telling myself that. Actually, I do love the terrible twos, which makes me think I just might need more meds! Today Annie is playing the Testing Game. You know, when you tell your child not to do something and she starts to do it anyway, and turns to look at you to see if you are serious or not.... But I digress... So my husband worked last night; he's on graves. He gets home around 7am, just as the rest of us are waking up. I try to keep our home as quiet as possible, but with 4 children, well, it is just never quiet here. But some days are louder than others. At first Annie is playing quietly, pushing one of her brothers' toy tanks back and forth on the couch pillow. I look at her from the side of my eye (I can't let her see me looking at her or she will scream at me), and am happy that she is playing so nicely. Then when I least expect it, she pushes the tank as hard as she can and lets go, sending it flying off the end of the pillow and onto our floor, making a horrendous crash, which brings me back to the Testing Game. I quickly tell her not to do that. She picks up the tank and starts playing quietly again on the pillow. As I watch her, she slowly turns her head and looks at me with a devilish grin on that angelic face. She starts to shove the tank again, but catches it at the last minute, faking me out, grinning at me the whole time!

This sweet, delicate little girl who can't even complete a full sentence yet is faking me out, seeing how far she can push me, what she can get away with. I try not to laugh, because the second she thinks I think she's funny, the game goes into overtime!