Don't Tell Me

So, Bree's old enough now to know, in most situations, when she's doing something one of her parents wouldn't want her to do. And, being the contradictory, testing age that she is, she'll just go ahead and do it anyways. Just before she goes ahead and does the naughty thing though, lately she'll look over at the nearest parent, point her little finger at them and say, "Don't tell me. Don't say it to me." This means of course, "Don't tell me no or that I'm not supposed to." For example, like most 2 yr. olds, Bree has been going through a jumpy phase. She wants to climb on top of most anything and jump off, bumps and bruises be damned. This has included climbing up onto the end tables in the living room and jumping joyously onto the couch. Maybe I'm a Grinch, but I just don't think that's super safe, fun though it may be. So, every time I see her about to climb up there I tell her no. Sure enough, the last time she made a move for the end table, she hoisted on little foot over the side of the couch and onto the table. Then, seeing me a few feet away she stopped, pointed her finger at me, and squinched her eyes up at me. "Don't tell me Mom!" she told me. But, of course, I did tell her anyways and made her get down. Makes for an interesting day around here since she's really into a testing mode right now, finding out how serious I am about the rules. Testing...1,2,3..testing!