This morning my daughter said a word that I've been dreading hearing from her. It's a word that I expect to hear a lot of as she reaches farther into that defiant stage of toddlerhood, a word that I imagine hearing so often that even thinking of it now causes my right eyelid to twitch. It's a word that conjures up many memories of me screaming it, mostly to my brother when I was a kid, and usually followed by a slamming door. Now my left eyelid is twitching, damitol!
She said NO.
At the moment she realized that she could indeed fit her mouth around this word, she was on the changing table. Sick with a cough, I was talking to her about how icky we both feel this morning, and I said that I thought I was getting what she has. She looked me right in the eye and said NO.
The analytical, took-a-few-too-many-psychology-classes side of me then spent entirely too much time trying to figure out what she meant. Momma can't be sick? How sweet! Momma can't have what she has, because it's hers and she's not sharing? A little less sweet. But then she answered that one for me by rolling over when I was trying to put a fresh diaper on her. She sat up on the changing table and pointed at the inner bathroom door, where the tub is, and started to whimper. Then cough. Then whimper again and cough again. Then she stopped the whimpering and just pointed.
"No diaper?"
Solemn nod.
"Do you want to take a bath?"
Another solemn nod.
So we took a bath, and Bug splashed around, played with the four washcloths she insisted on putting in the tub, and squirted me with my peri-bottle (her new favorite bath toy).
After the bath, Bug practiced her new word while we played that guessing game of "What does Bug want to eat?" This game starts with Bug whining at me while signing eat and is played by Momma guessing what Bug could possibly want to eat (e.g., Do you want a fig newton? NO. Do you want a cracker? NO. Do you want some cheese? NO.). This game takes a lot longer to play when Bug isn't feeling good. She finally agreed to yogurt, ate that and then passed out, giving me time to finish this lovely post. Aren't you happy?
