Outwitting with Wit

Innocent and Outwitting. At the same time.

Always one step ahead. That is the baby motto.

Just when an adult thinks he or she has the upper hand, a baby will point out how dangerously false that sentiment is.

For example, you've read about how we dismantled our room each morning when we arose well before the sun. Before 5 a.m. Lucas and I skillfully and craftily emptied bins of toys, shoes, books, stuffed animals onto the carpet. Then we would set about looking for drawers we could empty - out came socks, diapers, creams and other tempting items. Then, bored, we set about prying open closet doors after unknotting the towels locking them shut so we could empty the treasure troves of clothing, blankets, medicine and even a full-sized ironing board! In our wake were nail clippers, a syringe, nose aspirators and a broken glass thermometer. We are unsure where the mercury went. All of these items had been "safely" stowed supposedly out of reach of grubby toddler hands. The garbage pail, coat rack and laundry basket had long been banished from our room.

That action was interspersed with our clicking of the balcony light on and off: Tick, tock. Tick, tock. A nice compact sound and the only light shining in the dormant neighborhood at 4:45 am.

Raia: These boots were made for the innocent

Just look at his eyes - the essence of innocence. Right.

And even more innocence. And no mess.

On Saturday, the Sabbath, the Day of UN-rest as I like to call it, we set about to repeat our morning routine during our "nap." That didn't go over well as mommy and abba were looking forward to a small reprieve. Mommy stormed into our room as we were well into our rampage. And to our disbelief, she proceeded to remove every single toy and every piece of furniture from the room except for the dresser and our beds. Abba emptied the only dresser drawers that are not child proofed and double knotted the towels locking the closet doors shut. Now mommy cannot even find our diapers and socks and the room is so empty it now echoes.

Mommy and abba calculated that, if the stimulation of toy bins and extra furniture was tempting us to rise early and deconstruct our room, then removing said stimulation would bore us back to sleep until a civilized hour.

And it worked. The next morning, the only thing I had to do was climb into Lucas' bed and sit beside his sleeping frame giving a loud, rallying speech until he also woke up. But by 6:30 we were both asleep on the floor in the pile of blankets and pillows we had launched from our beds. With nothing left to conquer, boredom lulled us to sleep.

But not for long.

Lucas and I slept on it, as good babies do, and, refreshed, we came up with new and innovative ideas for the following morning: We moved my bed across the room and climbed onto the dresser from there! And perched like two little birds we opened and slammed the window shut - from 5 to 6:30 a.m. For all the neighborhood to hear.

Mommy and abba are most certainly experiencing frustration. But in the midst of that, I am positive there swells a great deal of amazement and respect as well in their hearts at our ingenuity.

Little geniuses. Always one step ahead of their parents, aren't we?

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