false

Miss Lily is just a few days away from being 2 ½ . Six months ago we were terribly worried about her lack of talking. According to the doctor she was delayed. We had her tested and found that while her speech was delayed she was advanced in other areas and this most probably meant that her learning curve was just different than what is considered normal, but that she would talk in her own time. Six months later, um… she talks a lot.

She talks, when I am on the phone, she talks when I am watching TV, she talks when I am talking to someone else, she talks at my eye doctors appointment, she talks while I am registering for school… and she is loud.

Lily’s favorite thing is to repeat everything I say, preceded by the word, no.

Me: Good morning Lily.
Lily: No good morning Lily.

Me: Would you like some milk?
Lily: No like some milk.

All day long, no, no, no. She only does this to me. For daddy she repeats everything preceded by the words I love.

Daddy: Good Morning Lily
Lily: I love Good Morning Lily.

Daddy: Would you like some milk?
Lily: I love milk.

I am one of those wacky hippy parents that doesn’t say no to their children. Well mostly, sometimes I say it but not everyday. I did at home daycare for five years, and worked at a child development center for a year. I have taken four child development classes, did 12 modules about child development at the child development center to get certification… bla, bla, bla. The conventional wisdom of the experts in this area says that if you redirect the little ones they learn faster than if you tell them no. Which in my opinion is true. I am not trying to protect her from discipline, just trying to get my way the fastest way possible.

So how did she learn no? We got this new book about shapes and colors. In the book Mickey is looking for his ball. We see a red triangle and ask, is this a ball? No, this is a red triangle. All through the book we say no. Until finally Mickey finds his ball. This is the first book Lily memorized. Now she repeats the book all day long, during her bath, during her diaper change, in the car, everywhere I hear the entire book word for word. So I taught her the word no, and now I am paying the price. The evil book of no.

I am on a mission to trick her.
Lily, do you want to go to the jumping castle?
Lily, do you want to watch Bob, the Builder.
See her two favorite things. I wonder if she will tell me no. Insert evil laugh here.

I make it sound worse than it is. I am just a little bent out of shape that she is so sweet to her dad. I understand, I like him too, but jeez. Last night she took the remote out of my hand and gave it to her dad. I am loosing the popularity contest in my own home. I lost Mandy’s favor years ago. Basically Lily is just like her father 99.9% of the time she is really happy and full of life. She lights up the world and spends way more time laughing than screaming, but this no thing is so incredibly annoying.