Underage Gambling

For dinner tonight we had chicken cordon bleu with bacon ranch Suddenly Pasta Salad and a vegetable. I cut Isabella's chicken into bite size pieces and arranged her meal on her new Princess plate. She's sitting at the counter watching Noggin when she suddenly looks down at her plate, carefully examines it for a while, and with her sassiest little girl voice says to me: "I bet I'm not gonna like thiiiisssssss!", while pointing to the pasta salad.

OK, so when did she start betting? I'm pretty sure I don't walk around the house saying: "I bet if you don't pick up your toys you're going on a time out", or "I bet if you don't eat your meal you're not getting a cookie", or "I bet if you don't listen and do as you're told you won't get to play outside in the backyard".

No, I don't talk like that because I don't like uncertainty, I don't want any room for possible misinterpretation and I'm simply not the betting type. I am much more direct, like: "Isabella, if you don't pick up your toys you ARE going on a time out", and "Isabella, since you didn't eat your (insert meal here) you are NOT getting a cookie", and even "Isabella, when you START listening and doing as you're told, then you'll get to play outside".

And, in the interest of full disclosure, here's the other new "thing". Everything I say to her, and I mean everything, is met with a "WHAT?" EVERYTHING! It is driving me crazy. So yesterday after having one too many of my requests fall on "deaf ears", I finally told her that since she was having such serious hearing issues we'd have to go see Dr. Senter, her pediatrician, so that he could fix her up and make sure her listening is perfect going forward. Guess what?! Yep, you guessed it, she heard that loud and clear.

So I'm left wondering, as we prepare to enter the threes next month ~ will the thrilling threes be any easier/better/more tolerable than the terrible twos?

Oh, and just so you know, our betting girl was right on the money and won the jackpot ~ she did not like the pasta salad.