Mouthfull

We went to the mall playground today. RJ was running over to the bench and getting a swig of juice then running back out to play. At one point, he climbed up the slide leaned over and spit his juice out onto the side of the slide. I was not happy, but it was the first time ever, so I went over and explained the rules and tried to dry up the puddle and sanitize the area. Again, he ran over, took a swig and darted off. This time he intentionally spit some of his juice on the floor. I snatched him back to the bench and he sat for a time-out. I set a new rule that he had to swallow any juice in his mouth before heading back out to play.

Before heading back out he took a sip and look at me. I prompted him to swallow and asked him to open his mouth so I could see the proof. Instead he looked puzzled and tried to tip his head back and open his mouth. He ended up swallowing, so he quickly took another swig. This time he carefully tipped his head back, tried to open his mouth without spilling the juice so obviously sitting in there (took a couple tries) and say "All gone!". It was the funniest thing I have seen! A 2-year-old trying to get away with having juice in his mouth and pull one over on me. He was trying so hard to keep the juice in and talk at the same time. I could not keep myself from laughing at his attempt. It was adorable! I find it so amazing that they are just born with this ability to manipulate and misbehave. On top of all of that, they are clever at it! Really, I had to give him props for the effort.