I am becoming painfully aware that no matter how cute or well-behaved children are, they still have the capability to be master manipulators. I fully expected the manipulation to come…eventually. I did not expect it at two!!!! 

The other morning I got my daughter up and dressed for school (aka daycare) and was low-key proud that I finally was going to be at work on time. We loaded up and headed out. She was in a great mood until I sat her down to go into the classroom. *insert melodramatic meltdown here*. I’m talking sitting on my foot, holding on to my leg for dear life, screaming meltdown. It was an A+ performance. 

Now I know that I may sound harsh, and I would be more sympathetic if she didn’t love school [like asks to go on weekends and holidays]. But as soon as I was out of eyesight, she stopped. She had a great day. She apparently just thought she would try one good time to see if I would take her work with me. 

That’s not the first time she’s tried to pull one over on me. A few weeks ago, she was begging for Sunny D [her new favorite drink, second only to chocolate milk]. I didn’t have any. She quickly hit me with “My daddy has Sunny D”, which I pretty well knew wasn’t true. When that didn’t work, she went on to “Mimi has Sunny D”. This wasn’t completely untrue, being as we had just gotten home from a beach trip with Mimi, where she was introduced to Sunny D. It didn’t matter, my answer stayed the same: I don’t have any Sunny D. 

The fact that sister girl is extremely smart is no secret, especially to me, but that has not masked the shock of this newfound manipulation. When I think of my two-year-old being smart, it’s usually regarding shapes, colors, and ABCs [all of which she does excel at]. This is an area of motherhood that I was not ready for…at all. Ready or not, it’s here. Guess I better buckle up.