Not So Innocent

Jake has been saying a little phrase over and over for months. He KNOWS what it means....and has learned to use this to his advantage.

Whenever an accident happens, the boy says "Oops!" (Almost sounds like he's saying "Iips," but still cute.) He drops a toy, "Oops!" He can't find his boots, "Oops!"

It's a very commonly used phrase.

Today, I've learned something that his little mind has figured out LONG ago. If he says the beloved phrase, he gets a free-pass.

Let me explain: Today we were waiting for Cameron at one of his therapies. This particular facility has a mini play-room and it is one of Jake's FAVORITE places to go. There's a little table and chairs and books and even colored pencils and a coloring book. He LOVES it.

One of the mini chairs was being used to hold open the door and Jake decided that he NEEDED that chair to sit on. He pulled it away from the door, causing the opened door to slam shut. "Oops." I grinned at him and said, "Yes, that was an accident."

Then he purposefully pushed the chair end over end so that it was upside-down on the floor. "Oops!"

"Oops," my butt!! You did that on purpose you little fink!! But you knew if you said "Oops" that I would grin and let you get away with it, right?

Soon after the chair, he was ripping pages from the coloring book. I kept telling him, "That's enough, no more ripping the pages out!"

After 5 pages, and 5 exclamations of "oops" I took the book away and said, "Pick up the ripped papers, we make a mess, we clean it up!" He looked at me, and then he looked at the pile of papers and began doing his typical Mexican hat dance on the pages. That's when the mommy voice came out. "JAKE! Pick UP the papers, NOW!"

He picked them up and as I held out my hand for him to put the papers in he threw the paper (again, totally ON purpose) over my hand. "OOPS!"

I guess the cute-ness is wearing thin. The kid's true colors are showing through.