Exerting Her Will

Kayla went to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed and saw that Joe had already put the toothpaste on her toothbrush for her. She was not happy.

A very indignant-sounding Kayla said, "I don't want the blue one! I want the pink one!" She was referring to the color of the toothpaste. She wanted the tube of toothpaste that is in the downstairs bathroom.

We both told her the toothpaste was "...already on your toothbrush so just brush your teeth." Usually that might get one or two more half-hearted protests from Kayla and then she would brush her teeth, although not happily.

That's how it is with most things with Kayla. She'll protest about something...and then usually acquiesce to what we wanted her to do. She doesn't put up a lot of fight, she doesn't have melt-downs for not getting her way, she doesn't throw a temper tantrum. She usually goes with the flow.

Well this night she surprised me with her determination to not give in to brushing her teeth with the blue toothpaste. That was not what she wanted and she was not going to brush her teeth with it. But she also knew we weren't going downstairs to get the other toothpaste and we weren't going to let her go get it either.

So the wheels must've been turning. The problem-solving, logical, calculating, thinking skills came out.

She didn't say another word, just turned the water on and let it run for several seconds. Then she turned it off.

Then we heard her call out from the bathroom, "There. No more blue toothpaste. Ha-Ha. There's just water on it now." Then the sound of her electric toothbrush could be heard.

She turned on the water and held her toothbrush under the faucet until it rinsed away all that blue toothpaste.

Oh how I laughed. And laughed even harder at the sound of her ha-ha - said in a sing-song, teasing, I-figured-out-how-to-get-my-way tone of voice.

Not that I encourage deviousness in my kids; but I gotta admit ... I loved it. I loved what she did and what she said. She was being a little devious. She was exerting her will. She was being clever. And independent. And even sneaky. (And it reminded me of the time she did this with her backpack in preschool.)

And it was all so typical-like.