No means Yes!

I've mentioned here how I've sort of become a one man muppet show for my daughter. And how bossy she's become about sitting back and letting me do all of the work of entertaining her.

Hey, she certainly can't make Francis give witty discourse on carrots vs. apples, so of course it makes sense for her to press me into service. Having grabbed my hand and pushing the stuffed animal of choice into it, she as good as lays back in her baby blue La-Z-Boy and settles in to watch the show.

Now I've been loathe to say no to Anonybabe about anything that didn't put her or me or her father in immediate peril. If she's going to swallow a penny, I say no. If she's going to try to climb on the shelving above our bed, or pull one of the heavy dinosaur toys from it down on our heads, I say no. If she bites me, particularly on the mammaries, I all but yell it.

Otherwise, I figure I'll just let her do her thing. And that had kind of morphed into taking directives from my one year-old. But Jesus K. Riste, was I getting tired of being the court jester. So last night, as long as I was into it, I would "play" one of her stuffed animals for her. Then when I tired of it, I would tell Anonybabe "no, I'm done" as she would repeatedly whine and bump the stuffed animal into my hand. If I hid my hand behind my leg, she'd seek to extract it, then would bump the animal against my elbow or wrist. "Ungh!" She would insist. "Ungh UNGH!" She would demand and gear up to yell it.

She got pretty mad, and then, marvel of marvels, she gave up and turned to something else. We repeated this cycle several times last night. She never seemed pleased, but she did move on.

It is hard saying no to her, but holy of holies, I'll be jiggered if I wasn't enjoying her company a damn site more last night since I didn't feel imprisoned in "loyal servant" mode. Mommy has rediscovered the magic of "me first." When Anonybabe was first born I had a wise doula tell me: "when mama's happy, baby's happy. When baby's happy, mama's happy." The idea being that if either one in that equation is miserable, then something's gotta change.

Anonyhub and I are going to leave Anonybabe with a friend tonight and go to a movie. I expect to be bursting with love and goodwill after the break. It might more than make up for the anger Anonybabe'll probably feel at being abandoned in a strange place. Or maybe she'll love being at this friend's and I'll have been putting myself on house arrest for no good reason.

All told, the learning curve on this stuff is mighty mighty steep.