Conversations with Li'l Chaos (the 4-year-old) Part 3

A lovely bedtime story for you. The other night I went upstairs to help Li'l Chaos pick out some pajamas before continuing with the bedtime routine. She asked if she could wear her zip-up jammies. It had been a very warm day, and her room was still pretty toasty. Too toasty to be wearing toasty jammies, so I told her "No," and picked out a set of shorts-and-t-shirt jammies for her, explaining that she shouldn't wear anything with long sleeves tonight. She pointed out another pair of jammies, asking if she could wear those ones. They weren't zip-up jammies, but they were long sleeves and long pants. I explained, again, why she couldn't wear those jammies:

Me: Trin, I just said that you shouldn't wear anything long tonight. It's far too hot in your room for that.

Trinity: Why?

Me: Come in here. (We both walk into the bedroom.) See how warm it is? Way too hot for warm jammies, right?

Trinity: Uh huh.

Me: Okay, so put these ones on, and we can go downstairs and have a snack.

Trinity: Can I wear these ones tomorrow?

Me: Which ones?

Trinity: (Holding up the shorts set) These ones.

Me: What would you wear tonight?

Trinity: Those ones. (Once again, indicating the long sleeve set.)

Me: Trin, I just finished explaining to you that it's too hot for those.

Trinity: Why?

Me: Because it was hot out today, and it's still hot in your room, and you will be too hot if you put those ones on! Do you understand??

Trinity: (looking straight up at the ceiling, with a brief, thoughtful pause.) ...Last time it was my birthday.

Me: Please just go downstairs...

I like to refer to conversations like these as "Eye-Fork Conversations" because by the end of the conversation, I want to stick a fork in my eye. I love my kids. And I'm fairly certain I'll also love being in that padded room, wearing my nice, new I-love-me jacket sometime when they're all teens.

Peace OutSide!