Toddler v. Mom

You know I like to think of myself as a nice mom.
It is a gorgeous day here in Princeton.
The sun is shining. The temperature is perfect, and there isn't 2 feet of snow outside our door.

And since it is such a nice day, I figured I should let my sweet baby play outside while I worked on spring cleaning.

Because my chores are all inside, I put up the baby gate on our front porch so Tiny could play on the front porch. That way I can keep an eye on her through our window and she's contained.  I put her toys, snacks, blanket, milk...just about anything a goober could want.  

The front door stayed open too if you were wondering.

But my generosity wasn't enough for Madeleine...she wanted to play in the mud.

So she figured out how to escape.

....

So I barricaded the wall.

First with a blanket...then with the strollers, and finally...strollers plus a suitcase.

Ha! Take that Tiny Creature!

So then she started throwing all her toys over the gate. She wanted to give them freedom that I was withholding from her. 

(Really...this is what she does in the morning when she is ready to get out of her room.)

About this time...all of our friends came outside, so she had to take more desperate measures.

She started throwing my stuff over the gate!!!
She would "sneak" into the house and grab whatever she could find and run outside cackling!

She even went for my camera, but I stopped her from touching that.

I can't help but to laugh at how smart she is.

Right now she's whining that I won't let her out and is still throwing my stuff over the fence.

I'm not really sure who won this battle...I'd like to think me.

(As my planner goes over the fence)

I can't believe our baby is so funny and smart.

She cracks me up. It's seriously moments like this that I love being a stay-at-home-mom.