Stall Tactics

Tonight I share another silly Molly development. She seems to think she has found a way to delay doing things she doesn't want to. When I call her name, she'll say, "Just a minute!" Which would be fine... except she never actually comes when her minute is up. Today, she was talking to her Papa. I asked her to say I love you, as we were getting ready to hang up. She replied, "No, Momma! I wanna talk!" She seems to have picked up on the fact that we say I love you just before Good-bye, so if she doesn't say I love you she can keep Papa on the phone indefinitely. (She discovered she was not correct in this assumption.) Then just before naptime, we watched the Grinch. (Per Molly's request.) When the movie ended and I said it was time to go upstairs, Molly came back at me with, "Well... how 'bout ten more minutes?" I really had to bite back the giggles - what two-year-old asks for a specific amount of additional time? It may not be the most endearing trait, this constant stalling and bargaining, and Molly is quickly learning that such attempts are futile, but her creativity cracks me up and keeps me forever wondering what on earth she'll say next.