Accidentally... on purpose.

Part of the fun of having small children is their innocence. They are seeing everything for the very first time. Everything is brand new. With that innocence comes an especially difficult time comprehending the greater concepts such as right, wrong, lying, and my particular favorite, accidents.

We all know what an accident is, bumping into someone at the store, throwing out the wrong bit of paper, running over the flowers with the lawn mower. What is not an accident is purposely peeing in your pants. When you lift up your shirt and sit down on the ground so you can pee, that is not an accident. It is also not an accident when you "accidentally" shove your sister.

Most recently, the neighborhood was outside playing. A handful of kids running rampant through the cul-de-sac, and the responsible adults occasionally taking a head count. We were thinking of teaching them to number off as a version of marco polo. One of the older kids came over to her mom, said something, and her mom just laughed. The girl went over to tell her dad what she had just told her mom, and this is what we all heard:

"I accidentally threw my sister's helmet in the orange tree."

Accidentally, of course. Her dad then asked her why she did that. The poor guy was trying to be serious, but none of us could stop laughing at how ridiculous it was.

"Me and Caleb were trying to get down oranges."

Oh the clever innocence of little kid logic. Why would they not realize it might be a bad idea to throw a bicycle helmet up in a tree to try to knock down oranges? It makes perfect sense. It was just an accident that they did on purpose.