Do as I Say. . .

I was all set to blog about my new FAV reality Show (Beauty and the Geek! A must watch!) but as I was playing with Ellie, I determined this would be one of those moments to capture.

Ellie and I were playing a little role reversal in her bedroom. She was the mom and I was the dog (I know, what child makes her mother an animal?). We were going through common aspects of our day -- nap time, dinner time -- when I realized that Ellie was mimicking EXACTLY what I say to her.

At nap time, Ellie threw the cat into bed with me (I routinely put Nate in Ellie's bed to read them stories together). She then told me, "You have ot be nice. Don't be sassy, OK??" Words straight out of my own mouth.
At dinner time, she ordered me, "Eat all your food." After dinner, she looked at me sadly and said, "I have to go a meeting. Don't be sad, I have to go. I can't stay."

After she got back from her meeting she wanted me to go outside. Of course Nate is obsessed with having me in his sight at all time, so I told her I couldn't go outside. I should probably take this moment to add that we're kind of in the parenting-by-choices philosophy right now. We can usually maneuver Ellie into what we want her to do by letting her think that she's made the decision. So she looks at me and says, "OK, pick it. Go outside or play?" I picked playing. She hems and haws for a minute, "OK pick it. Go outside or go to bed?" I picked go to bed. She then looks at me and goes, "NO, go outside," since this is clearly what she wanted me to do and is frustrated that her choices aren't having the same result as we usually get form her. When I told her I made my choice already, she replies, "You chose to go to Time Out," and pointed to the chair.

And of course as I'm typing this all, she comes in and says, "Go to bed or go STRAIGHT to bed?" a take off of my own personal favorite to use on Ellie -- Do you want to do it now or do it RIGHT now?