Little Miss Independent

You know how you can try and trick kids to make them do what you want them to do? Like, psych them out for a brief moment, all in the name of manipulation? Say they are fooling around and not getting out the door fast enough, so you say, "See ya, kid, I am leaving now, bye..." and pretend to leave and then they fear being left alone and come running. You know that trick? Well, it doesn't work with Isota. I really don't think that she is worried about being alone. She'll pretty much do things when she wants to do them.

Example: we were babysitting yesterday for her two little friends and we were all gearing up for a walk to the park. I put the two kids in the double stroller (what's funny is how I have started thinking of them as "the kids" as though Isota is separate from that. I actually say things like, "Sody, let's take the kids to the park," like she is the Grand Dame of maturity since she is a few months older than her friends) and Isota was going to walk next to me. Usually I put her in the Ergo pack on my front while pushing the stroller - you have to see all this to believe it - but yesterday she wanted to walk. (My big girl!) As we left the gated yard, she spotted some toys in the corner that she wanted to play with and made a beeline for them. Convincing her to come back and join us proved futile so I said, "Ok, well, the kids and I are headed to the park...I guess you can stay here then," thinking that would get her. Nope. All I got was, 'Yeah. Bye!" So I walked out of the gate and stomped my feet, pretending to be walking away, thinking that would make her run over. Nope. So we stayed outside the gate (I could spot her through a hole in the wood) and I watched her, trying a little experiment to see how long before she would actually get scared and come find us. And the thing was, she never did get scared! She just played by herself for a good 5 - 10 minutes (a lot in toddler time), not caring that we weren't there or that we "left" her, until she seemed to get a little bored and then finally wandered back over to the gate. Which she then opened by herself. And she seemed very surprised to see us on the other side.

Other days, she decides to walk in the complete opposite direction of where we are supposed to be going. She just tells me "Bye" and goes. I find it pretty amusing until I watch and watch and watch and realize she has no intention of turning around and coming back. And then I have to chase her down like a crazy person. How we have gone - in less than two years - from a seven pound crying little dependent nugget to this opinionated little lady who seems to think she can stroll down the sidewalk alone is beyond me. I live in a constant state of bewilderedness.