Deception and Deceit

Transferred from my other blog: The Adventures of Sisterhood. 
First published: 3-20-12 at 4:00 PM EDT

Before they really know what's going on, toddlers are so easy to fool. Sure, it sounds cruel, but sometimes it's necessary. Two examples:

I ate a bag of vegetable chips because I was heading out and needed to eat first. Kylie had a yogurt and an egg coming up. She spotted my chips and did a double take. After pointing and asking for them to no avail, she strolled over to the box, lugged the box out of the corner, nearly fell in face first putting it down, and took one bag out. Handing it to mommy, she said, loud and clear, "da da," which is baby talk for "open" in Chinese. Mommy hands it back and tells her to go ask sissy, who snatches it and tosses it back into the box, makes the box disappear, and confuses Kylie. She ended up happy watching a video of herself on mommy's cell phone (she loves those), and I was able to finish my snack in peace.

Another example is of her fussing at the dinner table last night. She sits next to daddy and diagonal from mommy (mommy sits at the head), and I sit across from her with no one next to me. I washed her hands for her and put her down to finish washing my own. She immediately bounces over to my chair and pats it, as if trying to get on it. I tried to put her into her own seat, but she did NOT like that. She and I wrestled for a good 2 minutes before I got her buckled in. She still wouldn't quiet, so I switched her chair and my chair, putting her where I was sitting and me where she was sitting. She quieted for a bit and ate a few bites. This distraction wasn't enough, but it did work for the few bites that it allowed.

Sure, sure, big sissy is evil for being a lying meanie to baby sis. But it's quite necessary very often. Dinner time! Distract her so she'll eat. Snack? No, it's not healthy. Pretend it's empty. Mommy and sissy need to go somewhere! Daddy, make sure she doesn't see us go out the door without her. The kid is smart, and soon enough she won't fall for our silly tricks. 'Til then, we can keep her away from making a mess with the chocolate and pretzel cereal bars.

-Chichi

Also, HAPPY SPRING!