My mama always told me...

that when things got reeeeally quiet, she knew my little brother Thys was in the other room doing something sneaky. Enter stage left into the room, and YES, there was some shinanagin he was pullin' and proud of it with a bit fat toothless grin to prove it. He was quiet about his sneakies from the very start!

"I'll never have a sneaker like that!!" I always told myself. That's just not me. I was always the rule keeper, you see.

Until today, when I ate a bit fat humble helping of my words yet AGAIN, from this parenting venture I'm on...

Little bug wasn't quite seeing the benefits of the strength building rest she could receive from a nap today and she was lettin' me know it with the volume she was producing from the room to my left, as I was distractingly typing away to prevent myself from hollering back with the same volumes. When all of a sudden...things got myyyyysteriously quiet back there. I took a gander over to the video monitor (one of the bestest shower gifts given to the Irwin 3) and saw that she was definitely quiet, but NOT so sleepy. There was a little paw reaching over the side of the bumper pad, outside the crib to something I couldn't quite see with my video monitor vision.

So, off I went to enforce and remind her of the strong benefits of a healthy nap for a growing toddler (and see what was lurking on the other side of the crib bumper, enticing little bug away from her precious slumber--durn temptations!!)

And what to my wondering eyes should appear?!?! No, not a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer.

Two tiny toddler hands re-folding the laundry that had already been folded once...by her mama, who left a heaping mile-high load of laundry in a basket, right at the foot of her crib, awaiting it's return to the proper home. The itty bitty sneaker had been running back and forth in the crib and must have spied this gem of a basket from a mile away and then realized it probaby wasn't the most proper way to spend her 1.5hr nap time: pulling each piece that she could reach into her crib and re-folding it into it's proper folding manner, according to her book. But by golly, she was gonna see if she could pull it off anyways!!! So, stealthily as she could do it, she snuck down to the corner of her crib, got all quiet as a mouse, and went to work.

UNTIL the mama arrived.

And had a REALLY hard time gently reminding this child that it was definitely still naptime, not laundry folding time while she received an 8-front-toothed grin that could have sold the sweat off a dead man's toe (as her daddy would put it).

I quickly slid the basket far out of her reach and just as quickly slid back out the door before I could not contain the bust-up of laughter that was dying to come out of me, any longer.

Should have figured something like this would have come by leaving laundry basket eye candy right at the end of her bed. We caught her last week unplugging her air purifying white noise maker every day at the end of her nap. We were wondering how the fan was always off, the three times we went in there, before we found the sneaky culprit. She was reaching under the crib bumper to see what she could find at short-toddler-arm-reaching level. The fan was also removed from the near vicinity of the crib.

Welp, time to go relieve her from toddler naptime torture. It's been an hour and a half and she's decided to use that to sing, burble, giggle and run and roll all around--the WHOLE time. Guess it's gonna be early to bed tonight!!

What can you do?! Not freak out, I'm learning. It doesn't help anybody or make anybody go to sleep, especially me.

Anyone else have these toddling woes?! Please shout out an amen!

SHE's a sneaker all right!! Can't you see it in those eyes?!?!