It's a Hard Knock Life

Earlier this morning...

Emilia: Whatcha doin', Mommy?

I'm turning on the air. What're YOU doing?

Emilia: (slightly exasperated) EVERYthin'.

It's just crazy what they expect a 2 year old to do these days.

Emilia: (sighs) Yeah.

(I'm surprised she didn't say, "Tell me about it.")

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This part of the post is called:

Workin' the system

Emilia has been using the potty occasionally. As a reward, we give her a few M&M's. (This is relevant later in the story.)

At grandma's on Friday Emilia had eaten all of her lunch except for her carrots and broccoli. She asked for dessert. I told her she had to eat her vegetables first. She sat at the table and messed around for awhile.

Meanwhile, the rest of us finished our lunches and then grandma pulled out the brownies. For those of you who don't know, my grandma makes THE. BEST. BROWNIES. I've tried to make her recipe and can't. My grandma ALWAYS has some of her brownies in the freezer, and really, they are best frozen, although fresh from the oven is also quite tasty and even just room temp. I guess they're just delicious however you eat them, but we all prefer them frozen. So anyway...grandma pulls out the brownie container (which has always been the same container, we all know what's in it, including Emilia who has been known to throw her hands in the air and scream "CHOCK IT!" when she sees it. But back to Friday...).

Emilia: "'Ssert?"

No, sweetie, you've got to eat your vegetables.

(my grandma also had M&Ms on Friday.)

Emilia: (hopefully) Nem-nem's?

Not until you eat your vegetables.

Emilia paused for about half-a-second.

Emilia: I need to go potty.

You need to use the potty? (In the past 4 months she has ASKED to use the potty ONCE. She typically tells us after she's taken care of business)

Emilia: NEED TO GO POTTY!

Ok, let's go.

I take her to the potty and take off her diaper, which has clearly been peed in recently. I sit the manipulator Emilia on the potty. She S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E-S a few little drops out, throws her hands in the air and screams,

"NEM-NEM'S!!!!!!!!!!!"

I would also like to note, that even with working the system like this, and in spite of getting some M&Ms as reward, she still ate her vegetables so that she could have a brownie for dessert. My grandma's bownies are just that good.