Ella’s excuse for everything is that her tummy hurts. A few months ago we noticed, especially in the car, that whenever we got onto her she would tell us her tummy hurt. It didn’t take long to figure out that it was just her way of diverting our attention from the matter at hand.
A few nights ago we ate dinner with my parents. Ella & Poppy were in the floor playing and building a block tower. After several minutes, Poppy got up and sat in his chair and Ella moved on to playing with her dishes. Gran reminded her that she needed to clean up the blocks first, but she was pretty much ignored. I told her that the blocks had to be put away before she could play with anything else. Her response? “But, Mommy, my tummy hurts.” I told her that I didn’t care, the block needed to be put away. She said again, “But my tummy hurts. Instead I can play dishes.” If you could see the matter-of-fact way that she moves her hands while talking and holding her mouth, you would understand the hilarity of the situation. Her reasoning skills are excellent and if I weren’t her mommy, I would have probably said, “Oh, okay!”
This picture was taken that same night. Although at a different time, you can totally get a feel for the “pretend innocence in the face of defiance” look she has going on.
