The Tempting "Two's"

I've never liked the term "terrible two's". When I heard people using the alternate nickname of "terrific two's", I found it too cutesy to be clever. So, today I decided that my Tessa is smack dab in the middle of the "tempting two's". That enemy called "self" just pulls at you hard when you're two! You want the world to revolve around you (hopefully, you outgrow that, at least to a degree!) Self control is the farthest thing from your mind.

In the last few days I have been studying Charlotte Mason's writings on Habits, The Will, and Reason. And I find it so easy today to observe little Tessie-pie as she gives in to just about every temptation that surrounds her on a day that the rest of us are preoccupied with our own chores.

Here are just some of the activities that Tessa was involved in this morning, before she eventually fell asleep on the recliner watching Boz: breaking into the guinea pig cage (this is not easy), climbing up to the kitchen sink to play in water that was soaking in a pan, drawing on herself with markers, drawing on her sister with markers, drawing on doll furniture with markers, drinking out of the dog water bowl (yes, face down like a dog, red-headed ringlets dunked), letting all the dogs into the house to join her in fun, feeding the baby some popcorn (just to spite the American Pediatric Association!), and getting into Daddy's cough drop stash (she calls them drop-drops, and boy, does she love them!), to list a few just off the top of my head.

Of course, we're always close enough to catch her giving into tempation! Don't worry, Grandpa, we got the popcorn out of the baby's mouth before she swallowed any!