A belated Kaelyn story for you: A week ago, on Kelly's work in the office, Kaelyn and I were playing around all throughout the house. At the top of our stairwell we've added a metal kiddie gate to prevent her from doing a face dive down the stairs. So now, Kaelyn is fascinated with this gate and likes to stand in the middle of it while it's open [with adult supervision, obviously]. Usually Kelly does this with her, but we were having a good time with it.
As we were playing there Kaelyn would look me in the eye and cross her foot past the gate towards the stairs; she would then tap her foot a few times and then pull it back. Then she would bend over and take her finger and tap the carpet on the other side of the gate, all while looking at me. She repeated that, foot then hand, over and over again. It was cute and I thought nothing of it.
So the next day, when Kelly was home, we were up on the stairs by the gate repeating the scene; Kaelyn was doing the hand and foot thing while grinning at me. But when Kelly notices this, she firmly says, "no!" and Kaelyn got a guilty look. Apparently Kelly has repeatedly told Kaelyn that she isn't allowed to touch the carpet on the other side of the gate. So the day before, when she was looking at me while crossing the line, she knew that she was breaking one of mommy's rules. She was just seeing how far she would get before I stopped her.
Now you know I love my daughter but I think this shows again that, even at a young age, there is an inclination to do wrong. I've been thinking a lot about rebellion lately; not overthrowing the government, mind you, but how it seems to be an almost natural response to authority. Is obedience figuring out how to suppress our rebellion? Just thinking out loud here, but this anecdote would fit well into the conversation.
And I was holding out hope for a perfect child . . .