The Negotiator

Over the past few months, we have seen glimpses of the personality God has given our sweet one. She is tender-hearted, compassionate, very, VERY observant with an excellent memory, passionate about reading, loving towards animals and babies, a connoisseur of culinary delights, and independent. One other faculty that E possess in spades is her mental acuity; this combined with her vocabulary means I am constantly thinking on my feet. Whew!!

In fact, all of these skills merge into the perfect storm when there is something that E really, REALLY wants. Case in point, snack time yesterday. Picture us in the parking lot of Wal-Mart. I am taking E out of the cart and putting her in the car when the following conversation transpired:

Me: Okay, we're going to go to the library, and when we get inside, I'm going to give you a snack!
E: Oooh, really?
Me: Yes! We'll go inside and look for books, and you can have your snack!
E: (sheepishly) I could have my snack in the car.
Me: (gently) Well, no, you'll have your snack at the library.
E: (now in her seat with a sly smile on her face) I could have some of my snack in the car.
Me: (a little more firmly) No, you'll have your snack at the library. (I close the door and walk around to the driver's side. I get in and E says...)
E: Mommy, I could maybe have some of my snack in the car.

You will be proud of me, I think, because I did not cave. We, in fact, did not have our snack in the car but at the library.

You've probably also figured out that this is why E has earned the nickname of "The Negotiator" in our house. Now I realize that there is a fine line between arguing and negotiating, and while E works on that, I'll work on timing my snack announcements.

P.S. You can't actually eat your snack in the library. They asked us to take it out into the hallway. :) Perhaps the car would have been better after all!!