One thing that I'm not very proud of is the use of bribery while trying to parent. I don't do it a lot. In fact, at three years old I think she's already aged-out of the whole con-art.
But indeed there are times when I really, really, would like her (or not) to do something, and she really, really, wants to do (or not) that very same something. (IT'S SO DAMN FRUSTRATING!)
So last night was just one of those nights when I really, really, wanted her to do something. The poor thing, I woke her up in the midst of her slumber (we'd come home from ballet completely exhausted and what was supposed to be a little nap, morphed into full-fledged night-time slumber) so of course she was grumpy and uncooperative, but she managed to allow me to peel off her leotard and tights, and slip on her pajamas. The tension came when mama asked her to go to the potty so that she wouldn't have an accident in her brand new big girl bed.
She absolutely, one hundred percent, did "NOT. WANT. TO. GO. to the POTTTTTTTYYYYY!"
I tried to reason with her, over and over, explaining why we should go potty before sleeping all night in our brand new big girl bed TO NO AVAIL.
Then I busted out with my oh-so-very-clever, "If you go potty for mama this one time, mama will give you a surprise!"
(Oh! the shame!)
"I don't want a surprise."
Shit. Really? She doesn't want a surprise? Cuss.
{ FYI: What finally worked was this: first mama went pee pee; then daddy went pee pee; then finally (hallelujah!) Juni went pee pee! }
Later that night, as she and I are snuggled under the big mink blankets on her brand new big girl bed, she throws her arm around me, rubs her nose on my nose, planting on me the best Eskimo kiss I've ever gotten in my whole entire life and says in her soft, soft whisper, like a butterfly,
"Mama? I want this to be the surprise!"