Cuteness Clouds My Judgment

My heart melts at the sight of this little face.

But apparently, it also clouds my judgment.

Kate always wants to mess with our computers, banging on buttons and changing settings that we don't know how to fix, so we try to keep them out of her reach. But of course, after she is in bed, we may have them out on the coffee table, the couch, or the floor. So, if we don't think to put them on higher ground before going to bed, they may be accessible to little hands when Kate gets up in the morning.

Last Saturday morning, I got up with Kate while Matt slept in. (She was nakey because her jammies had gotten a little damp in the night.) My computer was safely away, but Matt's was still out, and Kate got to it before I noticed it or thought to put it up. Naturally, (and this is where the clouded judgment comes in) rather than thinking "Hmm, let me get that away from her ASAP," I thought "Me like cuteness. Me grab camera."

And the intoxicating power of toddler cuteness only got stronger as she pulled down the orange pillow to lay on while she punched random buttons. This is the same pillow Daddy lays on in the evenings while working on his computer on the floor. "Aw, she wants to be just like Daddy!" So sweet. Surely this makes up for the fact that she was doing goodness-knows-what to his settings and sending random e-mails of gibberish.

Daddy did not agree, of course. Soon after I came out of the fog enough to finally take the computer away from her and move her on to something else, Daddy got up and went to check e-mail or whatnot, only to find his keyboard wouldn't type. He was mad.

"Did you let Kate mess with my computer?"

"Um, yes.... but she wasn't pounding on it... just pressing random combinations of buttons gently..."

"How would you like it if I let her mess with your stuff?"

I had no good answer to that, but I did go move my camera to a safer location.

I was in the doghouse for an hour or so until he finally figured out what was wrong. And because my husband is sweet and forgiving, his mood immediately improved and he was no longer mad.

Only then did I show him the pictures.