K.Lo steps in her hot dog bowl, which is on the living room floor. CEO says (teasing, obviously), “Ha ha, you stepped in your hot dog bowl!” K.Lo, not missing a beat, says in a singsong, “I did that on purpose!”

After accomplishing small tasks we might normally commend her for, but for whatever reason missed, K.Lo will ask, “Can I have a thumbs up?” Often accompanied by a little thumb up.

Management can no longer easily distinguish requests for assistance on the Night Shift. If N.Lo did wake up before, he would cry. Now it’s, “Mama! Mama!” Which is exactly what K.Lo says. Their tiny voices are hard to tell apart. Also, N.Lo said to me earlier, “Hey, Mama?” when K.Lo wasn’t around, and I could have sworn it was her.

I do worry sometimes that when K.Lo grows up, she’ll be a punk. She is a complicated creature, my K.Lo. This evening, for instance, she had an accident on the living room carpet. It was the second pants-wetting of the day, and she decided to cover this one up by sprinkling her juice all over the spot. I came into the living room to ask what in the world was going on, and she smirked and said, “I’m dancing in the puddles!” And indeed, she and N.Lo proceeded to dance in the puddles. Of pee and juice. You can imagine how this all went over, particularly when she proceeded to lie about the cover-up job. I’m just not sure, sometimes, that she really gets it. The incident resulted in an employee-management contract outlining punishment terms for future infractions, i.e. you pee your pants again, you lose a toy. An important toy. So, not ten minutes later, K.Lo lost a toy. And later still, she refused to get in bed because she “wanted [the CEO] to take more toys away.” And here I was thinking that Almost 4 was kind of a lovely age…