The thing about my daughter (or perhaps any typical three-year-old) is that she knows when she’s doing something she’s not supposed to. She’ll be alone playing in her bedroom or the play room for a bit, and naturally I’ll pop my head in or verbally check in with her at regular intervals.

“Charlie, are you okay?”

Now that I’ve finally gotten her to answer me when I call, she’ll usually respond with a simple, “Yes.”

“Charlie? What are you doing?”

“Just playing.”

But every so often when I call, I’ll hear, “Don’t come in here!” (followed quickly by a slamming door if she’s in her room or the bathroom).

Yeah, criminal mastermind she ain’t.

Today, she came up to me looking like this:

At first, I thought she was “hiding.” Yes, she still likes a good game of hide and seek and I have to pretend I don’t see her because she’s hiding her eyes or she’s under a blanket, so I started to play along.

“Oh, no! Where did Charlie go? I can’t find her.”

But she didn’t giggle like she usually does. After a few seconds when I could tell she was trying to keep the blanket positioned right where it was, I could tell something was up.

“Charlie?”

No answer.

“Charlie? Can I see?” She slowly lowered the blanket to reveal this:

“Ohhhhhh Charlie! What did you do?”

“Sorry, Mom.”

“You know you’re not supposed to be drawing on yourself. What did you draw with? Show me.”

She pointed to a marker on her table.

I picked it up. “This one?” I asked hopefully, as it was one of her washable markers I chose specifically because of her penchant for wall art and self tattooing.

She nodded.

Relieved, I started laughing. “Let’s go wash you up.”

(Well, of course I grabbed the camera first)

Good thing she’s cute.

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