I consider myself an intelligent person; and I take pride (probably unrighteously) in the fact that few can match my wit. That being said, I am often surprised at how often I am outfoxed by a little girl that is 2 years, 5 months and 18 days old. To illustrate:
Evelynn has just learned and is perfecting her self-propelled swinging technique. (In my family we always called the motion used to propel one's self in a swing as, pumping). Last night Evelynn was doing particularly well at this new-found skill; I decided to compliment her.
"Good job swinging honey," I said in my best encouraging-dad voice.
"Thanks mom," she replied. Now, Evelynn often calls me mom. This doesn't bother me because Geneen is obviously the parent that she spends the most time with. However, whenever this happens I like to remind her that I, in fact, am not her mom but her dad.
"I'm dad," I replied.
"Thanks dad," she amended. Evelynn continued to swing and shortly Geneen came out of the house to join us. I relayed the aforementioned conversation pointing out that I thought it was rather remarkable that Evelynn knew that she should say thank you after receiving a compliment.
"We sure have a smart little girl," I informed my wife.
"Yep," Evelynn quipped
"And she's a little bit conceited," I teased in a very positive, complimentary tone. (The tone is important.)
"Yeah," came Evelynn's emphatic reply. Thinking that Evelynn was just responding to my positive, complimentary tone. I asked her the following question in a very positive, upbeat and happy tone.
"Are you just responding to the tone of daddy's voice?"
"Nope," she answered sounding absolutely sure of it.
I thought I was the smart one.
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