TORMENTING THE CHERUBS

Okay, well they enjoy (or at least tolerate) it, so I guess it can't really be deemed "torment." But, there are certain things I can do to the girls that get a fun response.

Take Bean, for example. First of all, she has a really deep voice for a three-year-old girl (people are always asking us how long she's been a smoker). She's also a very intense kid. When she's involved in something, she's involved with every fiber of her being. This, of course, makes it very easy to sneak up behind her, say something like, "Boogety, boogety!" and scare the snot out of her. She will invariably jump about a foot (okay, maybe two or three inches), let out a deep, gutteral "ungh!", and then laugh and beg to be scared again.

Cakes, on the other hand, is not as much fun to scare. She's pretty even-keeled, and her reactions aren't as dramatic as Bean's (don't get me wrong, both my girls are drama queens, but Cakes provides slightly less drama than Bean does as a general rule). What I've found during the course of our gardening adventures, though, is that she has a great reaction to getting squirted with the hose during watering time. I discovered it the first time I accidentally sprayed her. In her sweet, little voice, she said a sing-songy, " 'Prayed me." And she says it every time I spray her, in the exact same, sweet, sing-songy voice. I've started giving her a quick squirt every few minutes, and I always get the same response. It's a riot!