One smart cookie

Last Thursday, I had dinner at my parent's house.

Even though my sister had eaten there the night before, she brought her family to Nana and Papa's (I think) because I hinted hard that it would be nice to see them there.

My mom and gram picked up JB at work-camp school and coordinated the timing with my sister's pick up, b/c as I have found it difficult, my mom has found it near impossible to pick one of the grands up and leave 1 or 2 of the others behind. Mom said when they got him, JB looked a little surprised or overwhelmed by the army approaching to gather him up. I reminded them that "surprised" is his default expression:




We have spend the better part of 2 years praising Mac's intellect and my sister and B in law's impressive array of parenting skills. But lately, with ever increasing verbal and cognitive skills, and a new sister and cousin in the picture, Mac has really raised the bar. She is so attentive to the kids and only flashes glimmers of jealousy, somehow stifling impulses to lash out at the adults or the babies. At dinner, Mac was behaving like a 2 year old which for her is "acting up," but the entire time I had to hide my giggles and not show her how impressed I was with her cleverness.

When jb's babbling during dinner got him a little extra attention from Papa, Mac turned to him and banged her hands on his high chair to interrupt his speech. Then she raised a forefinger at him and said, "JB, you be good." I was amused but her mother was not. My sister lifted my niece out of her chair and said, "I need to talk to you for a minute over here." As they approached the stairs i heard Mac pose a question-statement:
Mac: I am going to time out.
Web: No, you are not going to time out, but I want to talk to you
Mac: I not going to time out.
Web: You need to listen to me. JB has a mommy. In fact, he has two mommies. He doesn't need you telling him what to do...

I missed the end of the lesson, but when Mac came back she was all, "Hi, JB... Good boy, JB."

Then after a few minutes, Mac said she was done with her dinner. My sister knows she says this when she wants to get down from the table.

Web: Are you done with dinner?
Mac: yes. done.
Web: If you are done with dinner, you are all done. You can't get down and then eat more later.
Mac understood what my sister was getting at without further explanation. She held her forefinger up (at my sister this time) in the manner of someone saying, "Wait one minute,"
and nodded at Web with, "Just one cookie."

Me: (snickering- trying not to laugh audibly)
Web: No, if you are finished eating, you are finished eating... If you have more asparagus and chicken, you can have one cookie later.
Mac: (forming a peace sign with her fingers and clearly training to be a hostage negotiator, counters with) Two cookies...



She's such a sweetie.