Mischief.

To begin, Rudy hasn't been taking her naps. Instead of relaxing and blissfully sleeping in the cozy cocoon of a room she shares with Marley upstairs, she's up to shenanigans. I hear her on the monitor changing up the CDs or rifling through her sister's vanity items. She flips through books, and when that gets boring, she rips out their pages. It's the last offense that's the most unsettling. C'mon, Toot! You're too old to be ripping books!

And then there were the mini-explosions today. Out of the many, one involved an overturned (more like hurled) bin of colored pencils, and another ended in a determined and prolonged yank of her sister Marley's hair. She's had a few "Sit the Steps," and so I think she's gotten used to apologizing. This evening, when we were leaving Danielle's house after a visit, I prompted Rudy to thank her aunt for the Oreos-to-go: "What do you say, Rudy?"

She looked down and sadly murmured, "Saaaw-weeee."