A Beautiful Mess

She's just a little girl being a little girl. She bounces about the house, voice volume raised about 5 levels too high, laughing, singing, yelling in excitement and her voice sounds like a cheery little mouse. She almost always seems to be on an emotional high. So bubbly it drives me crazy sometimes. But then, it's also wonderfully contagious. I love that smile. And if she comes to me with that big grin on her face, I surely have to reciprocate.

 Of course I think even her mischief is cute right now. It won't be for long I know. I do try not to show that I am thoroughly entertained by her antics but I know she knows we're smiling under our stern looks. Her behavior is just so funny. For example...

Either I have a very large rodent helping itself to my snack pantry - OR - I have a very mischievous child indeed who helps herself to crackers and then hides the evidence. Hmmm....

 

Never trust a quiet 2 year old. Yeah. It's permanent.

 

 

 I smell mischief again. There's an open Goldfish box in my living room this morning and I didn't put it there. And curiously, Brookelynn's breath smells of, wait for it... Goldfish.

I'm sitting in Harry's room rocking and snuggling and in the next room I hear the following conversation.
H: Brookewinn, do you wanna take a bath?
B: Okay. I take my cwoves off. Do you wanna take your cwoves off? (Asking in the same high ...pitched cheery voice you would ask a mouse if he wants tea).
At this point I'm intently listening trying to decide if I shall intervene. A few seconds later, a naked bottomed Brookelynn comes in the room all tangled up in her shirt.
B: Mommy, I take my cwoves off. I take a baff. Hewlp me.
Me: What are you taking a bath in???
H: (answering from the next room) In the tub. (Storage tub)
Ok. Sure. They're happy. Let them pretend to take a bath in the storage tub I tell myself. B re enters H's room. And they play another minute until I hear this...
H: Now, Brookewinn, go potty in the tub...
NOOOooo!!!!!! Intervene quick!

Mommy's mascara and lipstick. Decided this would be fun after playing with a pretend vanity and makeup set at church. 

I picked up Brookelynn's play bag this afternoon and found four of Harry's dirty diapers in it. Why??? Who knows. Maybe she wanted it to be a "diaper bag."

She came in my room and snuggled in my bed. She does this every morning. Then she got thirsty. I learned a while back that the constant morning nagging for "milk pwease" before I was ready to get up was slowly going to drive me insane if I ...didn't figure out a plan. So I taught her how to open the fridge door and get her pre-filled (the night before) sippy cup of milk herself. This routine has worked well for both of us. She gets her milk and snuggles in the bed with me and I get about 30 glorious extra minutes without having to get up. Genius! So today as usual, she came to my bed, got thirsty and headed to the fridge for her milk. When she came back, I could tell she had something in her mouth. Around the face was a bluish substance. Along with her milk, she had taken the liberty to eat a few blueberries. Little stinker. Ha! I stayed in bed and cuddled a while longer then got up to make my coffee and found this. The door had been open for almost an hour. Guess I should have put her sippy cup on the BOTTOM shelf. The blueberries were in plain sight and easily within her reach. No wonder she was tempted to eat them. I later found an empty container of blueberries on the floor in her room, with a few spilled berries on her rug. That girl!!!

Oh yes. In addition to all these things, I can't forget to mention that the child is excessively accident prone. If she falls and hits her head in one spot, she falls and hits it in the same spot ten times. We have injuries that we've nursed for months for this very reason (and because she picks at her injuries and makes them bleed over and over again).



Still smiling after falling into the lake head first and hitting her face on a submerged brick. Why did she fall into the lake? She slipped. Bless her heart. The forehead scrape is a re-injury from a tricycle fall the day before. It just never stops with her.

There are many more stories like these about our sneaky little B and they will always make us smile. So many things that I didn't take a picture of. Vaseline in her hair, Neosporin on her face, clothes and all boo boos. The stories go on and on. If that's not enough, she also a chatter box and comes up with some pretty hilarious word replacements for the ones she can't pronounce (which is still about 80% of her vocabulary). She's a hog of all phone and/or Skype devices. If we FaceTime with her grandmama or one of her aunts, she must be in the center of the camera and she must be the one doing all the talking. You can't get a word in edgewise. Don't even try. 

This age and stage is one I'm enjoying with her. Soon, she'll be pronouncing her words with more clarity instead of the darling jibber jabber, she will be even more defiant and sneaky than she already is, and she'll be pushing those boundaries even harder than she is right now (and it won't be cute). Lord, give us wisdom to guide her! But I hope she never loses that zeal for life and contagious smile she has as a 2 1/2 year old. It is beautiful. One of my friends describes her little girl as a "beautiful mess." If I had to sum up Brookelynn in two words, those would be exactly the words I choose. Brookelynn...my beautiful mess.

Hair a mess, a self added accessory, a very dirty face and into trouble. That's my girl.