Alexander lost a tooth! And Phoebe is a clever two-year-old...

Alexander came into our room to say good morning to us, but mostly to Andrew, since he'd come back late and Alexander hadn't seen him yet. Phoebe, who'd gotten into bed with us in the middle of the night, was also surprised to find Daddy in bed, since when I originally put her to bed, he wasn't home yet...and his presence didn't register with her since she was after one thing (milk).

Right away Andrew wanted to try pulling out Alexander's tooth. So he grabbed a tissue and...yanked it right out of Alexander's mouth.

"Wow!" exclaimed Alexander. "You pulled my tooth out! Hooray! It didn't even hurt! I'm going to go look in the mirror!"

He skipped and leaped out of our bedroom and Andrew turned his attention to Phoebe, who was apparently feeling a little mortified what just went down. Still holding the tissue (and...maybe even the tooth?) in his hand, Andrew said, "Come here, Phoebe!"

She clamped her hand over her mouth, shook her head 'no,' and said, "Mmmmm-mmmm."

There was no way she was letting him yank out her teeth!

*****

At lunch today, I caught Phoebe dumping a spoonful of yogurt onto her head. 

"Phoebe!" I gasped as she started smoothing it onto her hair. "What are you doing?!"

"Want baff," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well, I think you've guaranteed a bath for yourself, so..."

*****

We were playing Mexican Train this evening. We give Phoebe a box of princess dominoes when we play, in attempt to keep her entertained, but she knows that her pieces aren't the real pieces and, of course, she wants the very pieces we're playing with. So she usually ends up with the extra train pieces and I just...spend the whole time trying to keep her from grabbing tiles she shouldn't be grabbing. 

"No, no, Phoebe," I said, moving her arms away from my pieces. "No. Nope. These ones aren't for you. Let's look at your tiles. Nope. No. No, no. These are Mommy's. You can't play with these ones. You need to use the princess ones. Look we can make a little train track out of them for the train to go on. No. No. Phoebe, stop. Those tiles aren't for you..."

Finally, Phoebe figured it out—the one thing that would make me give her what she wants!

She pulled her sweater up and over her head, and then started to try to get her arms out. It was very frustrating for her, but she just kept at it (really getting herself more tangled in her sweater instead of managing to get it off). 

"I don't know why we're taking off our clothes," I said. "But let me help you before you hurt yourself..."

I untangled her arms and then she was finally free of her shirt! Huzzah! And then—I can't quite remember what she said, but—she communicated that she now expected to be allowed to play with the official domino tiles. After all, she'd taken off her shirt!

Clever girl!

When she wants to draw with markers, I often tell her to take off her shirt first.

Want to paint a pretty picture? Shirt off. 

Messy food? Shirt off. 

So she decided that the barrier between herself and access to the dominoes was her shirt. Obviously! It had to be the shirt, right? It's the definitely the shirt. 

She was pretty bummed when it was not the shirt. 

"It's not really a messiness issue," Rachel explained. "You're just...the game is too hard for you and when you touch the tiles you kind of ruin the game for everyone else. Basically, what I'm saying is...you're not our peer when it comes to dominoes."

Rachel has been teasing me about that remark ever since I made it.