I was standing in the sunken living room folding freshly dried clothes when I heard the kitchen cabinet lightly slam shut. With interest as to the "who" and "what" of what was going on I peered up through the spindles separating the room I was in and the upper level kitchen where the action was taking place. Between the spindles, dinner table legs, and chair legs I could see a pair of legs standing on the plastic step enabling this little person to reach higher than they should have been at this moment.

I quickly discovered the "who" was Claira and the "what" was digging into the new candy the kids brought home from a birthday party we attended yesterday. In this particular cabinet on the middle shelf is a large plastic Rubbermaid bowl that holds all of the sweet treasures we accumulate from parties and festivals through out the year. I admit that I was pretty lenient over the past 24 hours allowing the kids to have more candy than usual. They took this new-found freedom and ran with it!

As I crash Claira's plan to sneak another piece of candy she just gave me that "deer in the headlights look". Literally. Our eyes locked and I knew that I couldn't look away or I'd be excusing her disobedience she was trying to hide. She ever so carefully put the candy bowl back in the cabinet then slowly and cautiously stepped down from the step never taking her eyes off of me. Once she was on the hard tile floor she bent over with her eyes still locked with mine as we both continued to look through the obstacles the dinner table, chairs, and spindles made.

Then it happened, I had to turn my head because I could no longer maintain a serious look with out a deep belly laugh, although somehow I did manage to keep it muzzled. This is when Claira made her move. She dashed like a little thief making her get-a-way running to the neighboring schoolroom and crouching under the school table.

I immediately called her to come to me, struggling to get my composure back and the "I mean business" look on my face again. She came as I told her to but was candy-less. The Nancy Drew in me knew not to settle for her slyness. So I glanced under the school table only to see the abandoned candy!

That stinker had quickly devised a plan to not only sneak a piece of candy out of the candy bowl, but quickly figured out what to do with "the goods" once spotted. Needless to say, the little disobedient candy snatcher had to face a swat with the wooden spoon. And I had to maintain the "mama isn't pleased with you" tone.

In the end the candy was returned to the candy bowl and peace in the household quickly returned. However I am still giggling over it.