My special Valentine's Day card

Allie is my three year old who thinks she is about to turn ten. And that surprises me considering how much of a bubble the girls live in. They only watch what is age appropriate on television and they don't have any older siblings to imitate. While we were patiently waiting for "the Tangled show" to begin last weekend at the movie theater, we were forced to watch the preview for Justin Bieber's movie. I half expected Allie to jump up and shout, "Mommy, can we see that?" My life seven years from now flashed before my eyes and it was scary.

Allie usually runs hot, meaning she likes to wear summer clothes in the middle of winter. I've learned that she will tell us if she gets cold so I try to pick my battles. I do insist that she wear a coat outside though. There are no negotiations with that. If it isn't too cold out and she says that she's hot, I won't force her to zip because she will tell us when she is cold and needs it zipped.

So back in December, Rich and I were rushing around one afternoon trying to get the girls ready to go somewhere and Allie was giving us a hard time about her coat. She finally agreed to wear it but wouldn't let us zip it. As she stomped down the garage steps, she said, "It's not fair. No one loves me."

What? WHAT?

I could not figure out where she would have picked that up. When I asked her, she said it was from Curious George. I found it hard to believe that a monkey would say that but then again, Curious George does things that monkeys don't normally do.

A few weeks ago, I was reading the girls an Arthur book at bedtime and there it was. From DW. "It's not fair" on one page and "no one loves me" a few pages later. Allie had imitated it perfectly.

Allie goes through these phases where I think she is just acting out for attention. I can't really figure it out because she receives what I feel is a good amount of positive attention. Maybe she's just testing her boundaries. So her latest thing is drawing on the floor, walls, etc with either pencils or crayons. When she does, I usually tell her to go take a time out. She'll walk into the dining room, pull out one of the chairs and climb up into it. She's usually not smirky about it either.

So last Sunday, she wrote on the wall with a pencil right in front of me. I asked her for the pencil and placed it on the kitchen counter when she handed it over. I kept on cleaning, not really paying attention to her bad behavior. And then I heard her sobbing. She was upset by the whole incident so we had another discussion about why she can't write on the walls with pencil. Or crayon.

Later that afternoon, Rich and I were trying to pick up when Rich discovered this.

Crayon all over the piano keys. This is why we only have WASHABLE crayons in our house by the way.

I asked who did it and Allie said that she had. I sent her off for a time out, which upset Anna because it disrupted their play session. And then Em decided that she needed to cry because she didn't want Allie to have to sit in time out. When her time out was over, I saw Allie standing in front of an end table in the family room. It looked like she was pretending to clean it and I thought Rich was in there so I didn't even think twice about checking out the situation.

A little while later, the girls asked for paper folded in half so that they could make cards. Allie and Anna spent a great deal of time crafting their creations. Allie handed me her card and said, "Here, Mommy. I made this card for you."

"Oh, thank you, sweetie! It's beautiful. What does it say? Can you read it to me?"

"Sure. It says dear Mommy, I put lipstick all over the table."

What? WHAT?

Allie was smiling.

And then it clicked. I knew exactly what she had been doing earlier.

At least she tried to clean it up. I was trying so hard to not laugh.

Anna wanted me to take a picture of her with her card.

And then Allie joined her.

Do you see how Allie has her eyes squeezed shut? That is on purpose. She doesn't do it very often to me but here is proof that she does do it.

I continued to laugh and laugh.

Sometimes that's all I can do.