You Can Always Get What You Want

Natalia is a little strong willed. Um, let me rephrase. Natalia is one of the most stubborn, head strong, determined creatures ever to walk the face of this earth. I have to admit though, there is something to learn from her whether she is proving that she will sleep when and where she wants or she is demonstrating that, yes, she can do everything her siblings can do.

After the great house rearrangement, we ended up with a dresser full of craft supplies in the living room. This works out well as the three big kids can now get out paper, coloring books, crayons, and scissors whenever they want. (Okay, so it works well except for the time Leon decided to see if the scissors would cut the skin between his thumb and forefinger, and, hey! It worked! At least there were no stitches involved...)

Natalia, of course, has her own crayons and loves to color as much as the big kids. However we do keep the craft supplies above her head to minimize coloring on the walls, crayon eating, and other such madness. The other day the three big kids were coloring and Natalia asked to color. (By "asking" I mean she drug me over to the craft dresser, pointed at the construction paper, hit me, and grunted. Such great conversation skills.) I told her no, I was in the middle of something and I tried to distract her by letting her throw around the dirty laundry while I attempted to sort it.

Instead of her usual protest of "No, no, no, no, no!" she quietly toddled off. (I do love how she runs. She literally pitter-patters on our hard floors. It is adorable.) I should've known something was up, but I chose to repress all maternal instincts and continued on with the laundry fun. Our washer and dryer are in the garage, and when I came back in the house I saw that she was quietly playing on the floor. I looked over and realized she was coloring. I was a bit perplexed until I looked over by the dresser and saw that she'd drug the step stool from the bathroom to the craft dresser, climbed up, and gotten out paper and her crayons.

At that point she was sitting there so quietly, coloring just on the paper, that I left her. And she reminded me that if you think creatively, there is always a way to get what you want.