Like Cheese Covered Chicken Soup?

Lily has the potential to be a very funny child. Now, I'll admit most kids are pretty cute around 2 and I will also admit, it is one of my favorite developmental stages (not the terrible part but all the other stuff) but Lily, well, she's above and beyond and I am not biased or anything...no, really, I'm not...Lily cracks everyone up. I don't know if it is the fact that she is this tiny ball of pure Herculean muscle:

(Note the triceps...in case they didn't hit you in the face already that is...)

Or maybe it is how quick she thinks to do funny things. Take last night for example. I had given the girls each a cup full of frozen Gogurts to finish filling them up before bedtime and at some point between the end of dinner and getting back to the bedrooms, Lily had run back and tucked the half-full cup into her bed, um, because she could? (Or maybe because she feared I would forget to feed them breakfast again...who forgets to feed their kids breakfast? That is about the most primitive of motherly duties yet somehow, I had gotten them half way to school yesterday before I about drove off the road in realization that I FORGOT TO FEED THE KIDS BREAKFAST! "Well, no wonder we are running so early," I said aloud...my bad. Times like those make me regret having vacuumed the car out...) 

Anyway, I am guessing Lily's trip to the bedroom happened when Madeline requested a fork for her Gogurt. 

"Get me a fork, Mom. I need a fork," Madeline had squealed. 

"Try again, Madeline," was my response.

"Will you get me a fork please, Mom," Madeline asked in her micro-Minnie Mouse voice. As I got up from the table to grant her this one and only wish, she clarified, "I want a clean fork, not a dirty one. Please." (You know, because I make it a habit to give my children previously used, unwashed, eating utensils...) 

Anyway, it must have been that interaction that had given Lily a moment to go unnoticed.... (because, she never climbs up on the kitchen counter, finds pricey pieces of chocolate and unwraps them, devours them and then excitedly points out where she has smeared some ALL OVER THE KITCHEN...) 

At any rate, after I put a small dollop of toothpaste on each of the kids' brushes, I went to fulfill my nightly turn-down service and there was Lily's cup, of yogurt, in her bed, next to her pillow. Meanwhile, back in the bathroom, Lily had already gotten ahold of all 3 toothbrushes, just long enough to have a little minty dessert from each one. (Again, perhaps just in case?) But, she's funny like that. And when she sees me taking her cup of Gogurt back to the kitchen, well, she put up her dukes, ready for a fight, bulky triceps and all. But since we don't live in a pigsty after all (wink, wink, Mom/Grandma) I don't budge on food in the bedrooms.

"I want water, iced, Mama," she said, in surrender.

"Ok, but stay in your bed or..." 

"To the CRIB!" she exclaims, pointing to the other room, one leg in the air and a sinister grin taking over her tiny face as she jumps down onto the pillow. 

Well, at least someone is listening to me. Now, if I can just get her to actually stay in bed so that when I come in to check on them, she's not eye to eye with me, having climbed up to the very top of their kitchen set...that will be a good night. 

Another shining example of Lily's endearing character was our little trip to Wal-Mart this morning (yeah, yeah, not only are we a mostly un-green family, outside of a shoddy attempt at recycling, but we support the evil capitalists as well...)  The Wal-Mart here has these tiny little user-un-friendly shopping carts, barely able to squeeze in my two small girls, their shoes and Bear-Bear. Liam, sleeping soundly in the carseat was on the top part where a kid might usually fit so I could see nothing in the cart or in front of us. All we wanted were some granola bars and Progresso Soup....and then some cereal, bubble bath, animal crackers, "Oooo, the megaboxes of Goldfish are on sale! And look at those cute cheddar whales!", baking powder, sweet relish ("Oh, not the breakable jar, let's get the squeezable one"), "Mommy, can we get a REAL fish?" ("No.") and, well, you get my impulsive-shopping point...(sorry Kurt, but I did stop myself when the art supply aisle started whispering sweet nothings in my ear...) And then, because the screaming and the gnashing of teeth and claws had become so unbearably loud, it was time to check out. And that is when I peeked around the car-seat to see the girls, having just escaped from an explosion at the Baking Powder factory, practicing for their next WWF match (my money's on Lily)...did you know that Baking Powder conceals bloody scratches down the cheek? And when I finally found the lid to the powder, I was met with a load of slimy green boogers...(yeah, that is gross...especially since I can only assume they were Lily's and not some other kid's whose smart and savvy mom thought twice about putting that into her cart with her kid...) 

And the white-washed Lily looks up at me, smiling and says, "Goldfish, please." 

And just for the record, those cheddar Wal-Mart whales, that Lily has already swept up with the dust pan, (the one I got for Christmas), missed the trash completely and decided to eat instead, taste a little like cheese covered chicken soup...

...better than the baking powder though...