Who Stole the Cookie...

Last week my visiting teacher's dropped some cookies off for me. They were in an old ice cream bucket with a lid. I had them on the counter, and since they had a lid on them, I figured they were safe. I was wrong.

First, Kellie just reached up and took them off the counter. (When did she get that tall?) I was extra surprised when I realized that she had mastered the art of opening buckets. Operation "Save the Cookies" began.

My next maneuver was to push the bucket all the way to the back of the counter, where she couldn't reach. I was outsmarted when I heard the familiar screech of my kitchen chairs scraping across the floor. Now when I hear this noise I know I have about 5 seconds before Kellie is into something. She's learned to push the chairs or ottomans over to whatever is out of reach and climb up. Once again, I made it just in time to save the cookies.

Throughout the day she tried standing at the counter pointing. Then she tried standing at the counter pointing and screaming. She tried getting Aaron to get them for her. She even tried buttering me up by hugging and snuggling then quickly running into the kitchen to wait expectantly. The girl definitely gets points for persistence.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those moms who refuse to give her kids cookies or sweets, I just don't think she needs to eat them ALL DAY. She just will NOT stop until the bucket is empty.

You can imagine my surprise, when later that evening I happened to look over at my daughter. (She had been extra quiet for a while, so I figured something must be up...) There sitting on the floor was Kellie, happy as could be, savoring every bite of her chocolate chip cookie.

I did my mental checklist. She's not tall enough to get it herself. The boys were upstairs in the bath. I didn't hear a chair scraping across the floor. Now how did she get that cookie?

Upon further examination we found a child's rake on the floor in the kitchen. (A neighbor had given us the rake as a Happy 1st day of Fall gift earlier this week) We figure she must have used the rake to reach up and snag the bucket. How she managed to do it so quietly, I'll never know. We figured if she could resort to such desperate measures she deserved her treat. Here's the evidence...

Caught in the Act!

Her next defiant bite! (So there, Mom!)

Her choice of "weapon".