Mischief and deceit

Almost 4 year olds are imaginative little boogers. With imaginination, I suppose, comes lies. Bold faced lies. I know, I know, you can't believe that an angel as precious as my critterboy could ever tell a lie. You're wrong!

A few weeks ago he reached up and touched a hot pan on the stove (after warning him about 6 million times in his life not to do that) while I had my back turned (lesson learned, for both of us!). When I turned around I heard him gasp and pull his hand back. I said "Buddy, did you touch the pan?" He said, "No." I saw evidence of 3 nasty burns across his fingers and he was starting to cry. Every day it's something new. A few days ago I found him in our shed. Daddy-o was "watching" him, but he had snuck out of sight. He was standing by gas cans *gasp* and when I called out to him, he spun around and said "I didn't do anything to the gas." Wow, really, because that sounded really guilty. (Don't worry, I explained to him that he could look at things in the shed, but he could never ever touch, or smell, or taste anything in there. I also explained to Daddy-0 that the shed needs to be closed so curious critterboys don't kill themselves with all of the dangerous things stored in there, even if we're "watching" him.)

Yesterday he said the floor was coming apart, "Do you wanna come see?" Ummm, no, not really, because no matter what it is, I'm sure I'm not going to like it. I followed him anyway, and sure enough, he had been pulling the carpet up in the far corner of the living room. I asked him how that happened and he blamed it on two classmates from daycare. Two classmates who have never been to our home. He has told me numerous times that "Sissy hit me!" or "Sissy took my _______" when she is in a different room or not even with us. He makes up wild stories, too. I should be writing them down--some are really great! I love his imagination, but I'm not too fond of the lying. I'm working on an effective discipline for it, but everyone says he'll grow out of it soon enough. I guess I'll just enjoy the innocence of it all, and enjoy watching my little man's brain become more and more creative.

Miss Priss Pants isn't talking much, but if she were, I'm sure she'd be telling tall tales too. Instead, she has begun climbing anything and everything she can get her little monkey paws onto. We've found that we can't leave a chair back from the table more than about a millimeter without her climbing up. I've found her sitting and standing on the chairs, and most recently, on top of the table. Those darn salt and pepper shakers are mysterious, aren't they? Little monkey girls LOVE to pour them out, or hold them over the side of the table, threatening to drop them to glassy death.

Disclaimer: We really do watch our kids. We do the "divide and conquer" technique most of the time, but it really only takes about 1.46 seconds of someone not watching before all *&^L breaks loose. If you can't relate, well, then, you're obviously still in the running for mommy of the year. I gave up on that dream years ago! :)

They love to wrestle with each other--and with us, the bean bag, any large pillow or blanket, etc. I get so much joy from watching them together. This is what it's all about!