Mischievous Madeleine

Madeleine has been up to her usual amount of impish behavior lately, and she has grown accustomed to sitting in her little princess chair for time-outs when she hits or doesn't listen. In fact, she has become so accustomed that it doesn't phase her in the least. For example:

MADELEINE: (smacking me on the leg with a look of glee on her face)
ME: Madeleine, honey, no-no hit my leg. You need to be gentle. Do nice.
MADELEINE: (continuing to smack delightedly.)
ME: Madeleiene, if you don't do nice, I'll have to put you in time-out.
MADELEINE: Aunt time-out.
ME: Okay, go ahead then.
MADELEINE: (trots over to her time-out chair and sits her bum down, then begins bouncing up and down and whooping joyously.)
ME: (to Julia) We can't pay her any attention.
MADELEINE: (gets up out of her seat and comes back to me, smiling widely.) Nice!
ME: You're going to be nice now?
MADELEINE: Uh-huh!

She has also been wreaking havoc with her newfound love of coloring. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of the idea that we use crayons and markers on paper only. Here are a few of the things my little budding artist has decided to decorate lately:


Her books.


The dining room wall.


The kitchen floor.


She even colored on her piece of cheese with a purple marker a few weeks ago, then proceeded to eat the cheese slice, which I figured couldn't cause any more harm than the chunk of marker she had eaten months back. While she didn't decorate any food items today, she did stuff her cheese stick into her sandal for good measure:



Unlike the boot/chocolate chip cookie incident, this cheese stick was discovered before trying to cram the sandal on her foot, thanks to the open-footed design of this style of shoe.

I think she is trying to live up to the potential her Elf genes offer her, given that one of the definitions of "Elf" is "a mischievous fairy":