Sunday, August 15, 2010

Sarcasm

We are entering a period where Lia is beginning to understand that human communication can be layered with meaning. At first it was just making up funny phrases, or recognizing irony, but she is starting to become very adept at constructing ingenious sarcasm, much to my dismay.

This evening as we prepared for bed, I could tell she was going to be testing me. She went to her room all too easily, and I as drew the blinds, I could see out of the corner of my eye she was trying to signal to David that she meant to misbehave, and that he should back her up. Only a few minutes after the lights went out, she was already starting her barrage of excuse to get out of bed: Davy needs a stuffed animal, her bottle is too noisy, she as to pee...

Already annoyed, because I know she is just playing, I lower the tone of my voice and tell her how displeased I am that she did not tinkle 5 minutes earlier when I asked the first time. Usually when I put on the "dad" voice, I get an immediate reaction. Tonight I got a feigned apology, and caught the glimpse of a smile as I walked her into the bathroom.

While sitting on the pot, she proceed to try to distract me with an imaginary story about her babies, but I am not dumb. I didn't hear any tinkle. My voice lowers another octave: "Lia! Did you lie to me about having to tinkle?!"

Without any reaction to my displeasure, and with a slight smirk on her face, she tense up her body enough to produce a few lonely drops of pee. Then, in a snotty and self satisfied tone I have never heard before, she says "What do you think about THAT?", bats her little eyes, and hops off the pot and heads to her room.

I was stunned. Of course, I got it together enough to scold her for being rude and for lying. But I think we all know who won THAT round...

1 comment:

E. Swan said...

That is TOO TOO hilarious!