Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Smart and Sneaky

I know I've mentioned to you all before about how smart Lana is. Not in the same way Sonya is, but in that logical, figure how to get what I want, sort of way. I sometimes forget that she is like this. This can also lead to her being sneaky when she knows she's doing something she shouldn't be. Sonya is usually more straightforward, so it catches me off guard when Lana acts this way.

A couple of weeks ago, when my family was here, my mom brought these miniture jars with M&M's in them for the girls. They were party favors at a wedding they recently attended. Nona made sure to get enough so each of her granddaughters had one. She gave them out when she got here. For Lana this was a perfect present. A tiny container! With CANDY?! Is it Christmas?!

She immediately decided this was her new treasure, and began to carry it around in her purse with her other treasures of the day. I let her open it once to take out a couple of M&Ms, but it was just after breakfast and I wasn't letting her eat the whole jar. I'm not that crazy. Yet.

About an hour later we all packed up to take the kids to gymnastics. Lana wanted to take her jar of M&M's with her, but I told her no way. She couldn't do gymnastics with a little jar and we weren't about to leave it in the car where it would become M&M fondue. We argued about it for a minute and then my mom offered to Lana to keep the jar in her purse. She thought about it for a minute and decided it was okay. The only problem with this solution was that my parents left halfway through gymnastics to bury my Grandmother's ashes. They wouldn't be home for the rest of the day. I didn't think about that part until we got home and Lana said,

"Whea aw my M&M's?"

Crap. Ummmmm...

"Sorry Lana, I think they're still in Nona's purse. We'll get them when she gets back," I tried to tell her.

"Noooo! I wan my M&M's now!" She complained.

"Well you'll just have to wait until she gets home," I explained again.

This was not what she wanted to hear, and she proceeded to start crying over her miniture jar of M&M's. Great. Now, most of the time I just let her cry and get over it, but I was trying to get her down for a nap. To be honest, I just didn't feel like dealing with a tantrum right then. So I did the bad mom thing and I gave in. Sorta.

"Look! Here's GG's jar of M&M's. You can borrow them until Nona gets back," I told her.

The fact was she just liked carrying around the little jar and I wasn't going to let her eat any of the candy right then anyway. Plus the lid on the jar was a little hard to get off, especially for the kids.

She stopped crying and agreed to "borrow" her sisters jar until my mom got back. Georgia didn't even know she had such a jar or that it got leant out, so all was well again. I took Lana and her jar to her bedroom for her nap. She wanted to hold the jar, but she agreed to let me place it on top of her dresser instead. This way it was still near her, but she couldn't get to it. Or so I thought. I left the room and didn't hear another peep from her, which I did find a bit unusual because most of the time I get at least one request for something at naptime. I think I was just happy to have three of the five kids sleeping at that point, so I ignored my, "something's a little off" thoughts.

Around three o'clock, I decided Lana needed to get up from her nap. We opened the door to her room to let her wake up on her own. Then I went in to check on her five minutes after that. That's when I found her sitting in bed with an empty jar on her nightstand. The jar that used to have M&M's in it before her nap. I picked it up and looked at her and she just smiled at me.

"Lana, what did you do?" I asked as straightfaced as I could.

"I eat GG's M&M's," she said coolly, while still chewing on her blankie.

I was trying so hard to not laugh. I was the one who left them in the room, although I thought she coudln't get to them. Obviously I was wrong and seriously underestimated what my daughter can do when she really wants something. I have NO idea how she even got that lid off. It must have taken her a while and she was so quiet doing it. None of us heard a thing, and we have a pretty small house.

I did end up punishing her. She was under the impression that when Nona came back, she'd get her own jar once again. When I informed her that her old jar would now be Georgia's, she started to cry and pout as before. This time I let her go. She eventually got over it. She even opened the now empty jar and started to put her own treasures in it.

Later that day when Georgia got the other jar that WAS filled, I let her eat a few of the M&M's. Don't you know I caught Lana sweet talking poor little Georgia into giving her a few of those little candies, even though she had a entire jar for herself already.

See...smart and sneaky. Somebody save me.

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