There Must've Been A Switch At The Hospital

I say this only because there's no way that my child could possibly be as devious and forward thinking as Little Miss is. That's not to say that I'm stupid, but I just don't believe I was nearly this clever at this age, nor did I use it to my benefit the way Little Miss does.

Yesterday at lunchtime, she announced that she wanted soy milk pancakes for dinner. I wasn't really feeling like making them for a number of reasons: they'd had them for dinner two nights before, they aren't my favorite, I had lunch for Mister Man that I needed him to eat at dinner (he ate at a friend's house unbeknownst to me), et cetera.

Silly me, I thought I would be clever. Rather than simply saying no, which in retrospect I should have, I told her that the soy milk pancakes are a special treat that she gets to have with Grandma and Grandpa only. (This is the one meal my husband is capable of cooking, so when I'm working and haven't made crock pot dinner, my parents stick around after finishing childcare duties and have the dinner my husband makes for them all.) Knowing that Grandma and Grandpa were visiting my sister that day and unable to make it for dinner, I figured this was safe.

She was briefly disappointed, but then her face lit up and she asked if she could call Grandma. Obviously, I knew where this was going. I agreed and handed her the phone.

Little Miss: Hi, Grandma. Can you come over for soy milk pancakes tonight?
Grandma: I'm sorry, Sweetie. We're visiting Auntie M today. I can't make it today. Maybe we can do it Monday night when we babysit you. How does that sound?
Little Miss: Oh. Well, can I talk to Grandpa to see if he can come?
Grandma: Grandpa's here visiting Auntie M, too.
Little Miss: Are you sure?
Grandma: Yes, Princess. He's sitting right next to me right now.
Little Miss: Ok. Bye-bye then.

She looked at me crestfallen. They can't come, Mommy.

Then her face brightened once again. I know! We can make it and just have it ourselves! We'll just have to do it and not tell Grandma and Grandpa. Ok, Mommy?

Yeah, not so ok. This time I gave her the flat out no. She was -- shall we say -- quite disappointed, but she finally got over it. This morning.

Me? I don't think I would have questioned my mom, and I know I wouldn't have thought ahead to how I could get my way without quite following rules that had been set out. You'd almost think she were already a teenager!