They're Smart!

Kids are smarter than they are given credit for. I remember when my son was about a year old, almost every time I tried to put him down for a nap he would sign and say "eat". I did not want to put my crying child to bed hungry. I mean what kind of mom does that???? So, the first few times he did it I turned around, took him back to his chair, and fed him or at least offered him food. Needless to say, he wasn't hungry and more times than not nap time was almost always after lunchtime. Eventually I caught on to his ways and realized I wasn't being a bad mom for putting him to bed hungry because he wasn't hungry! Now, 3 years later, he still tries it, but now I don't mind putting him to bed hungry because he knows he should have eaten more at dinner and I know he thinks he's smarter than his momma. :-)

Now that L is potty trained, she does the same thing, but instead of saying she wants to eat, she says she needs to go potty. This one is a little harder as we're at the beginning stages of being potty trained and I really don't want to put her in a diaper to take a nap, but if she says she needs to go potty, I don't want to refuse her and make her potty in her bed. I definitely don't want to have to change the sheets everyday either. Just today, shortly after she went to the potty, I put her down for a nap. As I was putting her down she told me she had to potty. So, I took her to potty. After about 10 minutes, she didn't do anything, so I took her back to her bed, but this time in a diaper just in case. After about 15 minutes of her being in her bed, she started letting me know that she needed to go potty. I went in her room and she kept telling me that she needed to go potty so I took her. Her diaper was dry and she did go potty, but it was barely enough to fill the bottom of the potty chair. The girl made herself go potty thinking she wouldn't have to take a nap if she did. She was right because at the point it was too late for me to make her take a nap because we were going to have to leave before her nap would have been over.

She's not even 2 yet! They're smart! At least they think they are! :)