My husband has taken to referring to our children affectionately as Gremlins, generally when one or more of them has gotten into some of his electronic equipment... but also as a reference to any naughty mischief they may have rustled up.
Historically speaking, Gremlins come from English folklore and were famously reported as saboteurs of machinery - especially airplanes during World War II. I never saw the 1984 American horror comedy movie called "Gremlins" but as a nine year old at the time, I gathered the general impression that its plot revolved around some very cute, cuddly looking creatures that were actually e-v-i-l. EVIL!
Our three children are assuredly NOT evil. They are generally warm-hearted, loving, silly and funny little people who also happen to do very naughty things upon occasion ~ most of which are extremely hard for us not to laugh at.
And while they all share the badge of mischief fairly equally between them, there is one wee person who has truly stood out among her peers in the past few weeks - one who we have affectionately dubbed Princess NaughtyPants. (Pants being a term of endearment around our home... as in SillyPants, GrumpyPants, FussyPants, CutiePants... you get the picture.)
Today then, I pay tribute in this blog to Princess NaughtyPants, this week's chief resident Gremlin in our household. Someday soon, we'll undoubtedly be laughing about many of her recent escapades...
Notable Gremlin Activity Over 24 Hours
- 4am: My husband's alarm clock goes off in the deep night, scaring the *&$^ out everyone who hears it. The next morning, I remember seeing our two year old playing with the radio on his desk. She, however, has slept peacefully through the actual event. On Wednesday evening we catch her red-handed, messing with the alarm clock again. She giggles hysterically.
- 1pm: she asks me for some chips. I say no and offer her carrots instead. She declines. A few minutes later I hear the sound of coins pouring all over the wood floor and rush to the living room to find her gleefully scattering an entire bowl of Mexican pesos in front of the couch. I begin to clean it up. Moments later, I hear the recognizable sound of chips crunching in the kitchen. Sure enough, there she sits in the middle of the kitchen floor with the bag of chips in her lap - happily stuffing her face and grinning from ear to ear.
"Gotcha!" says her smile. - An hour later, I take the gremlin and our younger boy to watch their older brother perform songs for an end-of-school party at his classroom. My eldest son and his classmates are seated in the front of his classroom in two rows, singing their five and six year old hearts out. For about five minutes, the two year old contents herself with sitting in a "grown up" chair at the back of the room.
Suddenly and without warning however, she takes off like a rocket for the front of the room and darts in her rainbow dress straight up to her brother, screaming his name. He and his class are right in the middle of singing a song called 'Pat Yourself On The Back' about all of the good work they had done in kindergarten this year.
Apparently inspired by the lyrics to the song, my daughter begins to pat her brother on the head like a puppy in front of the crowd of 60? adults filling the room with their cameras and video recorders while he and all of the other children try to sing. Our boy turns beet red. Again, she smiles broadly - this time as the uninvited star of the show.
As I try to restrain my writhing, squirming, strong daughter after the performance so that she won't ransack and pillage the entire table of cookies and punch, one of the other kindergarten mommies gives me a sympathetic look. "She doesn't let up on you for a second, does she?"
"She's our adventure..." I smile. - After my son's class party, my husband arrives home and takes all three children for two hours (Bless you, love!) while I head to a periodontal appointment. While I am driving I receive the following call:
"Honey. I need help. I swear I turned my back for only thirty seconds while I was talking with my dad on the phone, and when I looked up I discovered that our daughter has drawn in pen all over the white wall."
"Oh dear. What kind of a pen?"
"Ball Point. And wouldn't you know, she thinks the whole thing is hilarious. What a little Gremlin!" - At least six times since then, I've caught her chewing on small LEGOs the size of a marble. I don't know how many times a mother can try to explain the choking process in two year old words - but I keep trying. Every time I mimic choking or coughing, she laughs out loud uproariously. Watching me pretend to inhale a LEGO is apparently the funniest thing she's ever seen!
I could go on. For better or worse, she seems to spend her entire day coming up with sources of new material for my imaginary "burned out mommy" comedy routine ;-) The consensus around our home for quite a while now is that we've created a smart little cookie who is going to keep us running to stay one step ahead of her throughout the coming 16 years ~ or heck, just to keep up with her!
The general theme of our adventures with our two year old daughter this week, if distilled into a few choice words would be:
Noise. Ink. Destruction. Food Flinging. Hysterical Giggling (hers). Rapidly graying hair (mine)... and as always, the most heart-meltingly cute smiles you could ever see.
She's so darn joyful and enthusiastic about her own destructive tendencies, it's hard not to crack a grin even when she's just ruined something irreplaceable - like my high school yearbook.
Ah, Gremlins. Bill Cosby once memorably said (in this laugh-out-loud funny comedy sketch) that raising a child is like living with brain damage. He must have had some adorably mischievous little princesses drawing all over his house too ;-)
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