Some days Sydney Marie Stewart brings negotiating to a high art form and this was one of those days. Everything went smoothly at our house. Sydney was being a little doll and Baby James, who was with her, was being darling too.
Syd, of course, monitored Baby James’ use of every toy…and when he moved near one, she managed to get there ahead of him. Perhaps she’s learned how to teleport herself from place to place! Baby James remains laid back and doesn’t fight with his Big Sis about something as trivial as possession of a silly little toy. He’s got the Big Picture: there are plenty of things to play with, so if Syd takes one toy from him, he moves on to another. In the spirit of that old saying that someone is: ‘A Lover, not a Fighter’ I’d have to say that Baby James is ‘A Smiler, not a Whiner.’ And that smile is going to carry him a long way thru life.
The kids really had fun in the bath together. Syd was willing to share her toys there…most likely because there were so many plastic things to play with in the tub that she couldn’t keep everything away from him.
After the bath Syd decided that she’d run around naked for a while. She’d be a happy girl if she could be a nudist part of the time and the rest of the time she could be Child Fashion Icon Sydney Marie Stewart, who wears fancy twirling dresses everywhere she goes!
Much to our surprise, the other night Syd used our first and last names when she was talking…or more likely instructing us about something. Out of the blue, pointing her finger, Syd said: “Joe Bill Watkins….and DeDe Watkins.” We just lost it. We both thought it was so funny that we can’t even remember what she said to us past using our last name.
Back to my story: It was time for us to leave our house to take Syd and Baby James to theirs so that we could read to them and put them to bed, since it was Date Night. Mr. Easy Breezy Baby James quickly got ready to go but not so for Sydney Marie Stewart.
She didn’t want to put on her princess panties, her purple leggings and the cute Austin armadillo top she arrived in. She just wanted to stay on the couch NAKED.
Since the Stewarts don’t live at Hippie Hollow, where the nudists hang out, JB and I were certain that we wanted Syd to come home wearing CLOTHES.
There was a standoff or a ‘couchoff’ since Syd remained NAKED on the couch. The girl was not going to budge one inch and she gave me a look like: “Bring it on, DeDe Watkins…show me what you have…HOW are YOU going to get ME to put on some clothes??!!”
First of all, JB and I never yell at her….I find that I just have to make sure that I’m smarter than a 3 year old and some days that’s a tall order when it comes to Sydney Marie Stewart.
Finally, I came up with the idea that I’d let Syd wear one of my UT Tee shirts that has Bevo on it. She loves Bevo so I thought that would do the trick…but it didn’t. Then Syd got down to REAL negotiating with me. She wanted to wear a fancy dress home. We headed for the costume closet and I picked out a beautiful green twirling dress with lace, sequins and pearls on it. She could have been a guest star on the reality show “Toddlers & Tiaras.”
Because Syd can’t really read yet, I had to work out a VERBAL agreement with her that she’d only wear the dress in the car, that she’d take it off when we hit her house and that she promised that she wouldn’t beg to wear it to bed. Sometimes I think that I’ve won in negotiating with Syd, but the truth is that smart and gorgeous little girl drives a hard bargain.
Syd was happy as can be in her car seat dressed like she was going to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding! All I can say is, it’s lucky for Kate that SHE saw William BEFORE Princess Sydney Marie Stewart did!
Love, D2
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