The bedroom area in our house consists of a long, narrow hallway with the master bedroom on one end, Justin's room on the other, and Ryan's room, the boy's bathroom, and the half bath on one side. The half bath is in a bit deeper than the other rooms, and we have a linen closet and the dirty clothes hamper tucked inside that little nook.
When Ryan is annoying his brother, I yell at him, chase him, shoo him away, or something of the sort. He has determined that the wisest course of action is to leave when asked, hide out in the little nook, and once I have walked past him, return to annoying his brother. This plan worked only a couple of times (at least that I know of!) before I caught on. See, he will probably have to be at least 18 months before he can fool me all of the time! One time when I chased him out of the bathroom and he hid in his clever little hiding spot, I continued past him just a little bit and then turned to wait to see what he did. The look of smugness on his face was priceless, as was the look when he realized that he had been caught. Sneaky little boy! We both laughed!
A couple of times when I have been singing to him before a nap or bed, he has pretended to be asleep. I don't know what the point of that is. I put him in his crib and leave. He gets ticked off and we begin the process again. Guess he doesn't think all of his plans through yet. That's okay, neither do I.
Ryan continues to amaze me with how much he understands. He knows where things belong, he knows what he should and shouldn't be doing, and he knows how to at least try to be sneaky. He is stubborn and fights to get what he wants. He will intentionally injure himself for attention. I can just see his little thought process. "Oh, Mommy isn't giving me undivided attention. I will show her by flinging my body backwards into space and hitting my head and doing heaven only knows what else in the process. My fake cry is lousy, but if I am hurt I can sure shriek. Maybe there will even be blood or bruising..."
