mr mischief

Once upon a time, my sister and I took our kids to a beautiful cabin at Bear Lake. There were 11 children between the two of us. (my four boys, her four girls, and 3 of my brother's kids...) We had a great time there and took a gazillion pictures.. which, unfortunately, will not be included in this post.

One night, it was raining really hard. In fact, it was hailing on us. The kids retired to their beds early and I told my sister she needed a break, so she went up to her room and read a book. I put the two toddlers (Simon and Betty) in their beds and then went to check on the older kids who were playing cards in the "big kids" room. When I came back upstairs, the doors of the toddler rooms were open, and they were missing. I searched high and low and couldn't find them anywhere. I got drenched searching outside and then started to panic. When I came back in, I could hear the shower in the master bedroom running (a sound I had mistaken earlier for the pouring rain).. When I entered the master bathroom, I found Simon and Betty like this:

As soon as he saw me, Simon smiled big and said, "CHEESE!" as if he knew a picture was coming. I decided to grab my camera and take one, since he was begging for it anyway. Sweet Betty didn't know if she was in trouble or not. She was not. I know my mischievous son and I am not surprised by the fact that he went into her room, persuaded her to take off her clothes and turned on the water in the shower. I helped her in the tub and told her everything would be okay, but she still wasn't so sure.

Simon has been in love with Betty since day one. He talks about her and to her 20 times a day. Most of the conversations are pretend phone calls coming from toy cell phones, calculators and often his own feet (he will put his foot to his ear and say, "Hi Betty! I miss you!"... if only we could all be so flexible.) I don't think Betty feels the same kind of love for her cousin. She often will come up to me and tell me that "Simon's mean." Which is absolutely true. He's also naughty.