My Daughter the Imp

We recently decided to have a family movie night, it was our first one really. We picked Toy Story to show our 3 year old, and of course my 1 year old daughter was with us too.

"You sure that's an ok movie for them?" my husband asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. There's the part with the boy "Sid" and the mutant toys but we can fastfoward that part." I assured him.

Not having seen the movie for perhaps 10 years I had forgotten how much the cowboy Woody says "idiot." It's definitely not a term I wanted my 3 year old to pick up, and thankfully he didn't. I also forgot how intense the movie is for kids, especially when the toys get abducted by Sid and a good portion of the movie takes place in Sid's creepy house. Oops. Parenting fail #???.

My daughter cried out and whined and said "uh oh" a lot while anxiously watching the screen. However, if I tried to hide the movie from her and distract her she would push me away and keep watching. She cried, whined, and uh-oh'ed her way through the whole thing. Then when it was over she, despite all the stress, she said and signed "MORE!"

But the movie was over and it was bedtime. My son fell asleep quickly while my daughter did headstands in her bed and tried to charm me into letting her out. Her floor nap earlier that day was seriously backfiring. So I let her come back to the living room with me and my husband to watch some of our shows. My husband made popcorn which she LOVED and also requested "MORE!" My husband melted at her cuteness and obliged (getting him to make more popcorn made me very happy too).

As he went downstairs to make popcorn I brought her to the bathroom with me. She disappeared when I was washing my hands. I ran and found her next to her brother's bed, right by his head, calling his name repeatedly trying him to wake up.

"NOOO!" I whispered shouted. "He's sleeping. Shhh. Quiet."

"Shh! Quiet." she repeated. She had never said "quiet" before. I was so proud. How could I be annoyed at such a display of personality and cuteness, and learning new words too.

After another bowl of popcorn and an episode of some PBS show, I forget which, she finally went to bed at 9:30...not for want of trying to charm me into letting her stay up even later.