Wild child

On afternoons when Mabel has not taken a nap but really should have, you have to watch her like a hawk, because whenever she decides that she's not getting enough attention, or just because she's a menace, bad things can happen.

In no way exhaustive list of things Mabel might do when she hasn't taken a nap:

• Find some beloved piece of Dash's artwork and take a bite out of it.
• Eat some toothpaste - the minty kind that she likes the taste of but isn't allowed use because she can't spit yet.
• Pick flowers out of the neighbours' gardens, the most prominent and pretty ones that will definitely be missed, and then present them to me with a butter-wouldn't-melt declaration that she wanted to give it to me because she loves me.
• Grab Dash's sandwich before he gets to it and take a bite, or just maul it enough to make him demand a new one, thus enraging both him and me.
• Unroll the entire roll of toilet paper.
• Eat some toilet paper.
• Declare that she doesn't like any of her toys and wants to give them all to the thrift store.
• Take all her clothes off and run down the street.
• Bang the TV remote on the floor until the back pops open and the batteries fly out; then stuff the batteries in her mouth and come to show me, if I haven't noticed already, what a bad thing she's doing.
• Demand food; eat none of it.
• Tip an entire tub of cooked pasta that I was about to put in the fridge onto the floor.
• Laugh a little too hysterically at things that aren't all that funny.
• When bedtime finally comes, fall asleep in five minutes flat.

Which last, of course, almost makes up for all that may have gone before. Almost.