When Lena turned four in January, someone pushed a magical button, and Lena began a reign of terror at our house. Alyssa does most everything Lena does, and I think it's a mutual relationship of fun. I've been trying to keep a list of everything they've done, but it's totally possible for me to have overlooked some things along the way. I no longer remember the order that all of my scribbles came in, so, here's a random list of all their adventures. I think they're working on my patience levels!
-Lena cut her own hair once and Alyssa's hair twice. The second time she cut Alyssa's hair, Lena was simply trying to get Alyssa's ponytail out of her hair.
-Lena and Alyssa slicked down their hair with soap several times on different days. Once I asked them what they'd put on their hair, and Alyssa said, "soap and wetness."
-On one big day, Lena and Alyssa smeared lotion, sunscreen, and marshmallows all over Cecilia's duffel bag she was using for a suitcase. Later on that same day, Lena took some "washable" green ink and smeared it all over the walls and some furniture. I haven't been able to get it off.
-Lena has taken to exclaiming, "Alyssa did it!"
-One night, I tried to get Lena to leave my room. She came back saying, "Mom! I need to talk at you!" She told me some pretty outlandish stories after she had my undivided attention!
-One night, she started dancing around in the kitchen. She exclaimed, "Mom. This is how a turtle dances! This is how a cat dances!" While she was dancing and during a moment she was splayed out on the kitchen floor, I backed into the stack of folded kitchen chairs and one of them tipped over landing on Lena's finger. After she calmed down, she said, "Mom. You're not supposed to make a chair fall on my finger!" She also told me she now had a purple finger. The Sunday afterwards, she rushed into the Primary room, found her Primary teachers and announced, "My mom made my finger turn purple!"
-Cecilia left the comet out in my bathroom and I didn't make sure it was put back where it was supposed to be. Lena dumped comet all over my shower floor. When Ladd saw it, he asked Lena why she'd done it. She said, "I made it all green!" Later on in the week, she took the opportunity to dump the rest of the can of comet into my bathroom drawer that has all of my hygiene and make-up stuff in it. It took me weeks before I was able to clean that one up!!!
-They found some green fingernail polish and painted their sheets and their bedposts.
-They dumped soap or shampoo or conditioner out on my shower floor for some finger painting experience. They've done this three or four different times.
-One day, I got them dressed for fun in the snow, and I let them go outside in the back to play. A few minutes later, Lena burst through the door saying it was very cold outside. I checked on Alyssa and found four boots abandoned under the swing set and Alyssa carefully and systematically tiptoeing through all the grassy spots amidst all the snow.
-We got a game called "Spot It." I've decided that it's a game that makes Alyssa very possessive. Alyssa demands all the ones that have baby bottles on them.
-Alyssa's started taking something that she knows I want, then saying, "You have to say Please!!!" Once I say please, she hands me what she's taken.
-One Sunday, after Sacrament Meeting, Ladd and I started taking Alyssa to the car because she was sick. She threw a huge tantrum saying, "I not hate this house!" over and over. (That's her way of saying she hates something -- saying, "I not hate ____________") I guess I'm not giving her enough opportunities to get out of the house!
-One day, Alyssa walked out without her diaper. I asked, "Where's your diaper?" "Hidin'" "Where?!" "Here!" She pointed underneath her bed. I added, "Okay. Get it out, please!" So, she climbed underneath her bed, pulled it out, gagged and handed it to me saying, "Messy!!!!" (she says that every time she has a messy diaper as well as an overloaded wet one.)
-Alyssa found Cali's make-up one day and took out the mascara and proceeded to color the kitchen wall with it.
-Alyssa dumped two new bottles of fingernail polish remover into the toilet.
-Lena clogged two toilets and a bathroom sink in one week.
-Lena was trying to pour out some mustard onto her plate. Only the clear liquid was coming out. She wailed, "It turned to water!"
-One day, I heard the girls getting into some things in the kitchen. I walked in to see Lena make a mad dash into the laundry room and hear her slam a door. I went to investigate and found she'd put the parmesan container in the washer. Later, I found Lena had pulled the parmesan container out of the fridge again, and proceeded to divide it out between two bowls -- one for herself and one for Alyssa. They were going to have a feast of parmesan. A little later, I discovered they'd found a new container of marshmallow crème and opened it and stuck some spoons into it. I insisted that they needed to eat some mac 'n cheese before the marshmallow crème. By the time they were done with their mac 'n cheese, I had eaten nearly the whole container by myself. I rewarded them with two big spoonfuls. I came back in the kitchen when they announced they were done. They were covered in sticky white marshmallow crème, and I found they'd smeared most of what I'd given them all over the table -- finger painting style.
-Lena and Alyssa discovered my growing stash of Easter candy. They had a heyday eating what they could get out of the packages. They did this over a couple of sessions. Finally, Ladd and I gathered it all together and moved it. Lena and Alyssa tore our closet apart looking for the candy. They even asked Ladd and I where the candy was. :)
-Ladd gave me some flowers for Valentines Day. After a couple of weeks, they were wilting and dropping their petals. Lena discovered one of the petals on the counter and said, "Oh no! A feather has fallen!"
-One night, I was working with the clothes in their drawers in their room. Lena had some things she'd gathered and placed in their pink play wagon. She announced that I was in her way. I told her that her room was very dirty and maybe she ought to clear a pathway to the door if she wanted to roll the wagon in her room. She went wild tossing items cluttering her floor right and left. As she worked, she declared, "I have to make a sidewalk!"
-One day in Sacrament Meeting, I was trying to get Lena to be quiet. Instead, she said in rather a loud whisper, "But his buggers are gross!" I'm not sure who she was referring to as there were quite a few males in front of us, but it made one of the men on the stand grin.
-Lena took some left over milk in a bowl of cereal and dumped it on Ruby.
-I had to run an errand or two, so I left Ladd watching them. When I came back, I found Ladd sprawled out on the couch with Sponge Bob on the TV (it's an outlawed series in our house), and Alyssa with a knife in her hands trying to cut open an orange or cutie on the couch. (Alyssa has a fetish for knives and no fear of them at all!!)
-One day, while I was in talking to Ladd before he headed off to work, I heard the girls doing something other than watching TV. I came out to find they had assembled in our carpeted living room the following: the bucket of white sugar, the bucket powdered sugar, the peanut butter container (open with spoons that had peanut butter remnants on them scattered around the room), the peanut butter and honey mix (the same condition as the peanut butter), the fiber gummies (which they thankfully hadn't accessed yet!!!), and several packs of un-opened crackers.
-Alyssa and Lena managed to open a brand new bottle of fiber gummies and eat at least half the bottle. Lena told me she had lots of mess as well as yucky mess. Alyssa went through many diapers as well. Her diapers took several of us to change each time. One time, Lena said, "Yucky!!!"
-Alyssa and Lena ate a good portion of another bottle of fiber gummies with the same results. You'd think they'd learn!!!! They still ask for them, too!
-Ladd let Lena and Mckenzie and Ruby walk home from church one Sunday. He told Mckenzie and Ruby to stay with Lena. When they burst through the door, Lena said excitedly, "I ran in puddles! I ran on the road!" Mckenzie and Ruby said, still panting for breath, "And she made us run the whole way!!!" "We're exhausted!!!" Later, Lena showed me her skinned knee. I asked if she had fallen down on her way home. She said, "Someone was in my way. And I tripped."
-Lena has taken to running in a circle in our living room over and over while she tries to talk to me or whoever she's trying to communicate with at the time. She's a runner!!!! And, she's VERY busy!!!!
-Alyssa has started throwing major tantrums. Even when she isn't throwing a tantrum, she sure can cry for a very long time!
-One day, I had to take something to the Middle School for Cecilia or Jarom. Since it took quite the effort to get them into the car, I decided to take them for a drive. Lena told me which way to drive to begin with. On our drive, she found the bushy hill, the blueberry hill, the scary forest, the tickle forest, the jumpy forest, the lake, and then Lena asked me to find the pond and the poo dog lake. We didn't ever find the last two. . . . :)
-Lena and Alyssa dumped almost all of the soap, shampoo, and conditioner that was in the downstairs bathroom out in the tub or down the toilet as well as getting some on the floor. Cecilia was furious since they dumped out some of her really expensive soaps and shampoos and conditioners that she'd bought with her own hard-earned money.
-Lena and Alyssa found a brand new container of crystal lite drink pouches. They made the bathroom all red mixing them with water and smearing it all over the walls and such.
-Alyssa has taken to sneaking my purse into the main bathroom and dumping it out looking for some gum. Sometimes, she takes my purse behind Lena's bed underneath the tall bed that's in their room. Ladd and Cali have had to retrieve it and all the contents several times. The last time Alyssa took my purse into the bathroom and ate a whole new brand container of gum, I took off the door knob! I was fed up!!! And yet, she can still pull out the drawer and cause the same consternation! One day, when she locked herself in the bathroom, I put a granola bar under the door a ways, waved it around a bit and told her if she came out she could have some of it! But, I don't always have something to bargain with!!!! Alyssa has done this several times with Cali's make-up bag. On those occasions, she avails herself of the chance to decorate her face.
-Lena and Alyssa escaped on the first warm day. They ran down the sidewalk, and around to our park. Mckenzie and Ruby pursued them on foot or on their bike. I waddled over to the park and found them happily playing on the equipment there. Lena was in a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt that didn't quite cover her tummy. Alyssa was in a diaper, a necklace, and Mckenzie's coat-vest-thing. Great mommy moment!
-Lena's biggest adventures have centered around her new love of hide and seek. I've never seen such a dedicated four year old hide and seek player! It started one day when I'd run an errand with Ladd still in bed and James reading before school. I went to walk in the door and found it ajar. As I walked in, Alyssa said, "Lena went out there." I panicked. I went back outside and looked around. No Lena. I went inside and asked James where she was and he admitted he hadn't been paying attention. We started searching the house yelling her name. No Lena. I ran in and woke Ladd up. He started searching the house again, and I went back outside. I checked the car and the sidewalks, and finally walked back inside. I had walked through half of the living room when I saw Lena's head pop up over the counter in the kitchen. She smiled and said gleefully, "I is hiding, mommy!" She gave me a heart attack!!!
-Lena hid under my covers several times. It only took the first time before I became aware of her tactics and looked for her squirming little body underneath my covers.
-Lena started taking things she knew we needed and would hide them to "keep them safe." She's hidden my keys, my phone, the remote several times, and one time, James was fishing in the toy box upstairs and came to find me holding a bag of brownies I'd set aside for Ladd. James said, "I found this in the toy box." Lena piped up and said, "I was saving it for you, mommy!" At least she didn't eat them!!!
-Kelsy was watching Lena and Alyssa for me during my neurological doctor's appointment. I got there to pick them up and as I walked in, we looked around for Lena and couldn't find her. Kelsy said she'd just been talking to her about not going outside right then. I looked for their snow boots and found only one pair of boots. We couldn't find any new tracks in the back yard, and Kelsy couldn't find her anywhere in her house. I couldn't see her anywhere in the front. Kelsy started trying to find the police's phone number. I told her I would be extremely be rude and search her house myself. When I got to one of the boys' bedroom, I saw the covers on the bed start to move and out popped her little face peeking out to look at me. "I is hiding, mommy!" She had hidden there for a full 15 minutes!!!!! Kelsy's comment, once she'd seen for herself where she'd hidden was, "She hid on TOP of the bed!!!" We found the snow boots in the closet of that room. . . .
-One night, she didn't want to go to bed, so she hid. I forgot she'd done that and went to the ladies' room. When I got out, I discovered her bed was empty. Garrett had been sitting on the couch the whole time and I asked him if he'd seen her go downstairs. He said he hadn't, and I was too tired to start searching. So, I stood in the entryway and said loudly, "OK. Lena. You won. You hid really well! Now, it's time for you to come out." I heard just the slightest snicker in the piano room. . . .
-One time, after she'd hidden from me, I explained that if she wanted to play hide and seek, when I started calling for her, she needed to count to thirty, then come out. Later, I amended my statement and told her that I simply needed her to tell me she was going to play hide and go seek before she hid so I didn't get so worried about her. At that point (it was a Sunday), she announced that she wanted to play hide and seek at the church. I emphatically said it was NOT a good idea to play hide and seek at the church. Later, once we got to the church, James came to find me and said he thought Lena was in the kitchen. I finished what I was doing, and we went to find her. Just as I turned into that hallway, I discovered Brother Bennion and his son Seth, Brother Burdette, and a lady from the other ward who had been teaching a classroom next to the kitchen. Brother Burdette had borrowed keys from the bishopbric and the lady was saying, "Do we know whose child she is?" I heard both of them say they knew who she was and I admitted to being her mother. I explained that she had wanted to play hide and go seek at the church today and that she evidently hadn't listened to me. She had locked herself into the kitchen and was making a racket and disturbing the classrooms next to the kitchen. By that time, she had taken off already. I assumed she'd made it into the chapel, but Brother Burdette saw her crouched down in the corner and said, "Well, don't loose her again!!" I had to carry her kicking and yelling into the chapel. Luckily, church hadn't started yet!!!!
-I needed to have Kelsy babysit for me again, and when I asked her, she said, "Sure. As long as Lena agrees to not play hide and go seek while she's here!!!" Evidently, Lena traded her thrills with playing hide and go seek for getting into too many things she shouldn't get into. Kelsy found Ashton, Lena, and Alyssa had opened 20 packets of Kool Aid on Kelsy's navy blue leather couch and tried to make soup out of it. They found her stash of birthday presents and opened and ruined one of the toys. I guess they frustrated Kelsy. She told me that she finally announced that the only place they could play was on the couch she'd just cleaned off!
-A week or so ago at church, I saw Lena make a dash for the door shortly before church was to start. Thinking I ought to know where she's going, I followed her. When I got out into the hallway, I saw she was clear down at the other end about to turn the corner. She was looking over her shoulder furtively every couple of seconds. I determined she wasn't headed for the bathroom, so I cut across the gym to try to catch up with her. As I walked through the other door, I saw that Lena had gotten to that door and just barely turned around. I realized her goal was the kitchen and she bolted for it. In my extremely pregnant state, I ran behind her trying to catch the door before she could lock herself in the kitchen again. Once she realized that I was in pursuit, she squealed and messed up the chairs trying to get away from me. I caught her before too long and hauled her kicking and squirming back into the chapel. I plopped her down next to Ladd and said breathlessly, "Don't let her move!"
