Trouble- With a Capital "T"

The kids are definitely growing up. For Mo that means going through the stage where he is in to absolutely everything. At Grammy and Papa's he crawled right over to the display case, and when Papa said "no," he turned and looked at him. Then Mo reached up to grab the handle. He was met with "no's" from Papa and me. Then Kaia chimed in yelling "No bad boy." He finally decided he wasn't going to get away with opening the case that time.

Toilet paper is another kid favorite that Mo now enjoys. He got grammy's roll and shredded some. He was attempting to get the toilet paper in our bathroom, and after being told no, looked at me, smiled and grabbed at it again. There is a devious little laugh and grin that he has perfected. So I don't have to see him doing something he shouldn't, to know that's what he is doing. I heard the laugh and looked over the other day to see him emptying the bathroom cabinet. (the only cabinet without child locks of course)

Kaia on the otherhand is becoming quite the little lady at times, and at others she seems a moody teenager. She now insists on wearing dresses every day! Yesterday after Dana did her hair and she dressed herself, she stood on the counter watching herself in the mirrors. She was holding out one hand, then the other, then waving both; all to see what her reflection would do.

She loves to repeat "rules": I wear pull-ups in the night time and panties in the day time. She has started to describe things to us, which is always good for a laugh. The most common description is : I'm looking for my dress. It's white and blue and it has flowers on it. She asked Dana if he like her fish. When he didn't reply immediately she launched into: He's pink and white and he has blue spots. (He's red white and blue, but she insists it's pink).

The moody teenager phase I think is to make sure we don't let our guard down. If we don't guide her and bring her up right, she could be wicked to deal with at 13! This morning she was talking and I asked her what she said. All of a sudden she began shouting "Stop, Stop." Everytime I asked what was going on she kept up the "Stop, Stop." I put down the hairbrush and went to see who or what she was yelling at. Nothing was going on so I asked her what she was talking about. I shouldn't have asked because she said, "Stop talking to me!" with all the attitude she possessed.

Luckily I did most of my degree training working in the 13-18 age group, and Mo's mischevious stage is the second one I've dealt with. Watching the two of them grow up really makes all of this fun, through the frustrating parts.