The Creative Process

After bath there are two options: go right up to get pajamas on, or pee on the potty and then get pajamas on. Cassie may try to plead or argue or delay or run around as crazy naked toddler, but these diversions are brief in the face of Mama's iron will. Very soon, the naked butt is on the potty, and then, quickly, pajama-clad. (Mama is firm on this point--a tiny bit because consistency and routine are important to very young children, but mostly because Cassie's bedtime is a Very Important Time in Mama's day.)

So. The night before last, after an uneventful tub, some strange bug crawled into the naked butt in question, and all of a sudden Cassie was shooing me out of the bathroom, emphatically telling me "LEAVE ME ALONE! GO AWAY!" At the same time, she seemed to be doing something complicated with the potty seat that fits on the regular toilet, something that may have involved her car puzzle. I may have seemed a tad hesitant about leaving, because Cassie repeated her orders to "GO AWAY!" and then explained the urgency of this command with "I'M MAKING A MOVIE!"

And so I did. I went away. It worked. I went out obediently and sat on the couch and flipped through a catalog. It was the damnedest thing. See, I guess if you're just stalling and being a dawdly toddler, it brings out the hard-ass in me, and I impose my will. But hey, if you're in the middle of an artistic project, however imaginary, I guess I'm just willing to let you be. I think this was just a fluke, and that it's not a sign that Cassie has learned how to play me that well all of a sudden. But it does give me pause. I may need to do some real girding of my disciplinarian loins before this childhood thing is over.

(By the way, we did finally get her to bed without much trouble, though not until she was done with her project, such as it was. Pete went in to check on her shortly after she'd sent me away, and she got rid of him, too: "DON'T WRECK MY MOVIE!")