This morning I was in the bathroom while my kids were playing in the TV room. I heard a "CLONK" and then the definite sound of small hands splashing in water, which meant my son had overturned my husbands water glass on his desk and was happily playing in it. I sighed, got up, and was washing my hands when my 18-month-old daughter toddled into the doorway and looked up at me with her huge blue eyes, one hand tightly clutching her favorite beaded necklace.

"Mess" she said. "Mess!"
"Did Daniel make a mess?" I asked her gently.
"Yeah" she said, nodding her little head.

Then she wandered off to her potty and rather primly sat down.

I went out to the TV room and sure enough, there was my three-year-old, splashing around the water he had spilled. I cleaned it up and shooed him away, reflecting that if his sister was already tattling on him at 18 months old, this was going to be one long childhood for all four of us!