New Toddlers, New Tricks

My sphinx has ever lived in the protective cocoon of her silence.  By not speaking up too much, she has often avoided being lumped into the usual characters involved in suspect activities like raiding the refrigerator, dumping toys, turning on lights late at night and making a general mess. 

She shares a room with her older five year old sister.  Last night, the lights kept going on after I'd turned them off, I'd tucked them in, I'd declared that the day was over.   I'd gone in and every time, she seemed innocently lying in  her bed, her sister's protests to the contrary.   Being tired, I'd up to this point, not investigated but my daughter's insistence that she was innocent resonated for some reason yesterday.   I hid just outside in the hallway.  The light flicked on within five minutes.  Pouncing, there was my three year old with her hand still on the switch.  

Here was proof, my sphinx who I thought so sweet is secretly crafty.   The next day, more proof of her having learned how to use silence as a cloak.  I'd served lunch.  Each girl got a yogurt, a cheese stick, a drink and some sliced apple.   Sphinx wanted a second cheese stick.  I told her to eat her yogurt first and went back to helping the baby.   Very quietly, she got up and took her plate to the sink and I saw her dump the entire yogurt into the trash can.  She then came to me with bright brown eyes and a soft smile, "Can I have a cheese stick please?  My yogurt is all gone."   She had not lied, she'd merely disclosed what she knew I wanted to hear.   I immediately thought of the found broccoli from last week, the laundry bins that had been tossed like salad and the mysterious disappearance of several chocolate milk cartons.   How many of these incidents were Sphinx generated?  How long had I been the perfect parent patsy?

She's not saying but I'm thinking I might need to install cameras in the kitchen and a GPS on this one's shoes just to be safe.  In the meantime, dinner shall be served in courses and no one is getting up until the meal is over.