Playing Hookie...

Okay - who taught my daughter to play hookie from school at 2 years old????

I confess, sometimes the working from home gig is not so great for me...especially since Danika still has to go to daycare. I feel isolated a lot and sick of seeing my own walls. But sometimes, it is wonderful. One of the wonderful benefits is that when she is sick, I normally have the flexibility to keep her home with me. And sometimes...when I have a light work load, I keep her home with me just for fun and flex my hours around a little bit just so I can get some quality Danika & Mommy time.

Well....I think she is starting to figure all this out...because lately this has been the scenario in my home about one or two days a week:

Danika gets out of bed in the morning just ready for life....energetic and ready to go. She eats her morning breakfast of peanut butter toast, and then I clean her up and get ready to send her off to daycare, which we frequently refer to as school. ( In all honesty, most days she can't wait to get there...and some days when I keep her home with me, she cries that she isn't going to see "Nomy" and "Minny", two of her beloved daycare workers.) When I ask her if she is ready to go to school, she suddenly slumps forward and her shoulders sag and she grabs her belly with both hands and very slowly and sadly shakes her head back and forth.

"No, Mommy. I not go. My tummy hurts." And then she tilts her head up at me and gives me this pitiful, puppy-dog look and sticks her lower lip out just the slightest bit and just stares at me. Gone is the energy, the running, the playing...she is suddenly very "sick."

The first time, I bought it hook, line, and sinker. In the past she only behaved like this when she was getting ready to run a fever and really was sick...however, about 15 minutes after I made the decision to keep her home and rearranged my work load to accommodate that....my little faker was up and running all over the house. So I got down and looked her in the eye and asked her if she was ready to go now...and I got the same sudden "sick" routine. All day - anytime I asked if she wanted to go somewhere, she pretended to be "sick" and as soon as I relented and said she could stay with me, she was miraculously cured. :)

She is TWO YEARS OLD!

I can't believe she is playing me like this already. :) Oh well....I enjoy the time with her and it does crack me up. I guess I should just enjoy being wanted while it lasts. :)