Well Played, Wee One

Josephine learned a new trick yesterday while eating breakfast. (By the way -- I accidentally tasted her rice cereal the other day [if "accidentally" means realizing you have some on your hand as you're about to get clean laundry out of the dryer and just lick it off so you don't get it on your clean clothes, then yes, it was a total accident] and OMG!  It tastes TERRIBLE!  I can't believe I am feeding my child that crap!  After tasting it, I offered it to the dog, and she refused to eat it.  That dog eats POOP and she won't eat rice cereal.  POOP.  Man, I will be glad when I can feed that poor baby some yummy vegetables.  Okay, tangent over).  She learned that if you take a nice big-girl bite of cereal and wait for your mom to praise you for a good bite, then make a raspberry noise -- ALL of the cereal will go spattering all over your mom.  And the dog.  And the floor.  And, somehow, the ceiling.


Now, that might have been the last time she did it.  You know, tried it out, then experiment over. Here's where I made my fatal mistake.  After she had successfully spit all remnants of cereal from her mouth, she was SO dang proud of herself that she made THIS face:

And she was SO STINKING ADORABLE that ... I laughed.  


DEAR GOD.  So guess what she did?  Yup, she repeated the spit-take ELEVEN TIMES.  And died laughing every time.  I tried to look like she wasn't cute, but I think she saw it in my eyes.  She knew she had made a funny and was so super-cute that she can do just about anything she wants.  I smell trouble in our future.


When I stepped out of the room to put her bowl in the sink, I heard her talking to the dog (who always stands by my side while I feed Josephine, even when she is getting food spit on her).  I swear, by her giggles, laughs, and then howls, I could imagine what she was saying:


"Dude, Cleo, did you see that?  I totally got mom!  Like TWELVE times!  She was like, 'Oh, sweetie, here is a bite of cereal!  I bet you will swallow it like a big girl!' and then I was like, 'Oh, sure mom, just put it in my mouth!' but then I DIDN'T swallow it at all!  I spit it all out instead! Bwahahahahahahaha!!  I am a comic GENIUS!!!!!!"


The best part?  I told Jeremy all about it and then suggested HE feed her dinner.  Guess who she didn't spit on?  Yup.  She was saving it all for mom this morning.  The girl is too smart for words. And, she kinda IS a comic genius.