Saturday, February 11, 2006

The sneaky one

It's Saturday afternoon. Earlier in the day, our 4 year old neighbor, H girl, came over to play for a little while. When H Girl went home, my babysitter insisted on accompanying her in the elevator to her apartment despite H Girl's protests that she could go by herself. Although this building is about as safe as they come, no place is perfectly safe. We very rarely let our kids go somewhere in the building without us and then only if both of them are together.

M Girl is eating a snack and I'm doing the dishes when we hear a little knock at our apartment door. I open the door and see H Girl, by herself. I'm pretty sure her parents wouldn't let her come down alone. She's not exactly the most trustworthy kid.
"I'm here again! I'd like some food. Do you have any popsicles?"
"Honey, where's your dad? Did he tell you that you could come back here?"
"Well, I asked him if I could come over."
"What did he say? Does he know you're here?"
"I asked him and he said no so I sneaked out." She does a little sneaking dance in my living room.

I adore this girl but she's Trouble. She's adorable and sweet and has the awesome power of teeny tiny cuteness. You just want to scoop her up and carry her around in your big mom purse. But just try to say no to her and watch the storm clouds gather. Thunder claps! Lightning strikes! She turns into a small but very loud, flailing mass of fury. At least that was last month. Now I guess she just does what she wants regardless. It's quieter but a lot more unsettling.

So, before I can say another word to her (like "Holy crap kid are you in trouble"), M Girl says "H Girl! You can't just leave your house without telling your parents!" You go girl. I seriously thank my lucky stars that I don't have to worry about my girls doing something like that (at least not yet). They aren't perfect kids and they push our buttons like any other kids. But we've tried to teach them about safety and when it comes to that kind of stuff, they really tow the line.

So H Girl's dad came down to get her. I open the door and she's talking to him like nothing happened. "Dad, can I come back later? Is my friend S home? When are we eating dinner?" He's clearly pissed. He picks her up and walks wordlessly away while she chatters on. She clearly doesn't know what kind of trouble she's in. Then again, she behaves like this because her parents are a bit lax in the discipline department. Maybe she knows that they're no match for the power of her teeny tiny cuteness.

4 comments:

AfricaBleu said...

Hee, hee "sneaking dance" - I love it!

Good thing you've got a rule-keeper of your own - she may just tame that wild pal of hers.

Better keep a stock of popsicles and padlocks on hand, just in case.

landismom said...

Yikes, I can't imagine what I would do if one of my kids just wandered away after I told them not to. Maybe this is what H-girl's parents needed to become a smidge more disciplinarian.

The Scarlett said...

She's probably like this because she is so cute coupled with the general lack of backbone in the parental department. I swear some people are so afraid that their kids won't like them if they tell their kids, "no."

Anonymous said...

sheesh! glad you live in the same building, and not 2 El stops away!