Plotting an Escape

I'm pretty sure they're plotting an escape.

There have been tell-tale signs for quite a while, I'm just finally putting them together.

For instance, over the past month both older kids have been quietly playing in a room by themselves for looooong periods of time. When you open the door they look annoyed at the interruption, and they won't tell you what the play was about.

We say: Fine, keep your secrets. I have to work anyway.

But we pick up whispers about other worlds as the door is gently closing...

Then, more pieces of the puzzle fall in place. Like their daily training to climb a quasi-vertical rope on a flipped-up bed mattress. They're suspiciously proficient at it by now, they've been doing it over, and over, and over for the entire past month.

It all started as fun entertainment one night, around when the shelter-in-place was declared. We pushed the mattress and boxes against the wall as we were moving the bed in the room, and thought we'd give them the chance for some impromptu exercise - they had a blast!

So much of a blast, that the kids decided they're much happier to sleep on the floor and have the mattress up for exercise, so we kept it up.

Then, weeks later, their plushies suddenly getting wings? And not just one or two, there's a whole bunch of them, of all different kinds, all ready to take off..

The very last drop was with Fae, the other day.

You know how she likes to crawl around in the outdoors, and goes immediately straight for the bark mulch? Yes, of course we supervise her to make sure she "plays with her hands" [She doesn't. It totally gets in her mouth and she's adamant about keeping it there and we have long negotiations about it. So far Fae has won every negotiation].

Anyway, whenever it's time to go inside we make sure to gently shake all the bark off of her. [We call it "Shake the baby!", though, obviously, not the bad kind of shaking]. 

Well this time, an hour or so after we had been out in the backyard Greg is doing a diaper change upstairs in the bedroom. I happened to be walking by them when I hear Greg's thoroughly surprised voice:

 

"Fae, what is THIS?!"

He holds up a giant, two-and-a-half-inch bark shank that he just pulled out of her diaper. It had been stashed in the folds there, for quite a long time! 

Obviously, she had stashed it there on purpose... what was she intending to do with that?!?

Of course, Fae admitted to nothing.

She gave him the most genuinely innocent look: Who, me? I have no idea how that got there.

Yeah, right.

I'm gonna keep an eye on these three. And on their plushies.