Baby tricks

Ava has started doing something lately that makes me think she's smarter than we give her credit for.

When we put her in bed for the night she's usually quiet for a few minutes until her pacifier falls out of her mouth. Oh how I long for the day she can put it back in her mouth by herself. Anyway, we usually let her cry for a while before we go settle her down and start Round 2 of the Bedtime Challenge. We usually end up going through several cycles of this before she concedes/passes out from sheer exhaustion.

Lately she has been altering her technique in a vital way. Don't fool yourself, she still cries like someone's got her toes in a vice-grip. However, as soon as she sees me she immediately stops crying, gets a huge smile on her face, and sometimes even stoops to cooing at me. It's like she has somehow hacked her way into my brain and broke down all of my "bedtime" defenses. My only counter-measure is to make my visit as short as possible. I could probably resort to not looking directly at her big, beautiful smile, but then I think she would just change tactics by adding on an adorable laugh or saying "Daddy".

My own daughter is (already) trying to manipulate me! And if she keeps it up she may just succeed!