... she discovered colouring pictures was surprisingly hard, even though her five-year-old niece for whom she kept the pictures and markers could do it with ease. The felt-tip markers seemed huge compared to Maggie's little hands. Her tiny fingers lacked dexterity, so she could barely hold on to a marker unless she grabbed it with her whole fist. Even removing the caps required a lot of strength, and when she did manage to get the cap off a blue marker it already felt like an accomplishment. She tried to colour in the ocean around a cartoon mermaid, but found herself drawing over all the lines, if she wanted to or not. Soon half the mermaid's head was as blue as the water around her. There was no way the picture would look half decent if she tried to colour it in more. Colouring pictures was clearly not an appropriate activity for a young toddler like her!
Maggie threw the marker accross the room in frustration, leaving a blue mark on the front of the couch. Oops! She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, she wasn't prone to outbursts like that. Maybe her transformation also had some effect on her behaviour and emotions? The blue stain was quite visible on the beige fabric of the couch, but it was no big deal, she'd have enough money to buy a new one soon.
The bigger problem was that Maggie was getting bored. And Grace had only been gone for maybe five minutes, she wouldn't be back for a long time.
Maggie needed something to do. She looked at the pictures in front of her, black outlines on white paper. Boring and stupid. Maggie grabbed one with her hands and tore. Rrrip! That was what the stupid thing deserved. And the others too. She wanted to destroy them all! She got up on her feet to stomp around on the small pile of pictures, but as soon as she stood the wobbly feeling reminded her she was barely old enough to walk, and it would be way too dangerous to try and kick or stomp anything - what if she fell over and hit her head? So she quickly plopped back down on her diaper. Well, she'd have to use her hands then. Roaring like an angry, baby dinosaur, she tore the pictures apart and threw them around until she was sitting in the middle of a mess of pieces of paper. She laughed - this was a lot of fun!
After a few minutes, it dawned on her that maybe she got a little too carried away. She was supposed to be a big girl, wasn't she? She should really behave more like one. Seeing a beautiful red marker, she had an idea. If she couldn't colour pictures, maybe she could paint her nails! She began with her left thumbnail, and it actually worked! The rest of her thumb ended up slightly red as well, but that didn't matter. She painted the rest of her fingernails - or rather fingertips - red as well, then she decided to paint her tiny little toenails blue, leaving some stains on the floor. Just when she was done, she heard the door being opened - Grace was back!
When Grace entered the living room and saw partially painted baby Maggie surrounded by chaos, she...