Hannah swings from the towel rack

It is hard to know how mature your child's brain is. Do they understand that they did something they shouldn't do? Do they know they lied about it? Do they understand what a lie is? It seems especially hard for me with Hannah because in some ways, she is mature beyond her years, and yet she is still three.

This past week, she hung on the towel rack in our bathroom and pulled it part way out from the wall. JB was there and discussed with Hannah why this was not okay. She totally got that.

Then, yesterday, amidst the cacophony of school work, Hannah started screaming in the half bathroom off our living room. I went in to investigate and found the following:

Yes sir'ee. That is the towel rack in the guest bathroom.

Me: "How did that break?"

Hannah: "I didn't hang from it."

Me: "But how did it break?"

Hannah: "I have no idea."

Me: "I think you do know."

Hannah: "I didn't hang from it."

Me: "Okay, then you sit right here on the floor until you can tell me how it broke."

A few minutes later Hannah came up to me in her typical Hannah-attire -- something she puts together that you never thought would go together. This outfit, below, is actually a bathing suit bottom, with a pink cotton shirt, and a bathing suit skirt put around her neck like a scarf:

Hannah: "I know why'd it broke."
Me: "Okay."
Hannah: "I did hang from it."
Me: "And why did you tell me you didn't know how it broke?"
Hannah: "Because I didn't want to get into trouble."

And there you have it. The moment in my mothering of this Hannah girl that I realize "She knows what lying is." We've struggled to figure out whether she understood what it was, but yesterday it became obvious: "This chick has it down and is totally working us over!"

And now to fix the hand towel hanger thing. I told Hannah she would need her own hammer and nails to fix it. This sent her into tears because she didn't have a hammer and nails!