Maybe Katie will be a teacher?

I got home from work on Monday night feeling a little tired, as usual, but excited to be home, also as usual.

I sat down to see how the day went and learned (from Daddy... Katie is denying everything) that she had pushed her brother and talked to Daddy in a less than nice way.  I did the usual "it's nice to be nice/don't talk mean or people will be sad and DON'T HIT YOUR BROTHER!" talk for the 50th time this month and then Katie started to talk about how she wanted to run around the house but couldn't because Jake was asleep.  I don't know where this came from... I wonder if she was trying to deflect the heat.

Well, this went on and on and let me tell you, she knows how to work a room.

She complained (in her sad voice) about how she couldn't run and she needed to run because she needed to get excercise and that mommy gets to excercise and why can't she.  Add in a little whine just on the verge of angry and you'll probably get a good idea of how she sounded.  It went on for awhile.  So long that I *thought* she was done so I turned to ask John something.

Katie saw that and I guess she decided to use it as a "teaching moment" or whatever it is a 4 (and a half) year old would call it.

Katie looked at me and at her daddy and explained that she was not done telling us something.  Then she said, "When someone is talking, you shouldn't do what?"  Then she gave us a hint... "Ta... ta... ta..."

I jumped in with "Talk?" and got a figurative gold star when Katie turned to me and said, "Yes!  That's right.  When someone is talking, you shouldn't talk."

Well, we chatted a bit more which really means that Katie talked and we listened (and chuckled a little over her comments... behind our hands of course so she wouldn't see us laughing).

We laughed harder when we noticed that Jake had walked over to stand next to her.  And he started to say, "Shhhhh.  Shhhhh.  SSssshhhhhhhh." over and over.  Katie would move away and Jake would follow.  She moved three times before he was distracted (I think he wanted to play with his truck).  He only "shushed" us that one time but it was fu-nny!  Back to laughing behind our hands.

Then I talked to John again and Katie said, "I was talking!  When someone is talking, you should what? Llll lll llll..."

Daddy jumped in with "Listen?" and he got the gold this time.

Katie beamed at us and said, "That's right!  When someone is talking, you should listen."

Here's what I think is funny; when KATIE is talking, everyone should listen.  And if anyone else is talking, well, Katie is going to say something more inportant and more interesting anyway so everyone else should just "SSShhhhh".  We're working on this.  Mostly I'm telling her that I'm talking and she needs to wait her turn.  And then reminding her that it's not her turn yet.... and that it's still not her turn.

We'll probably be working on this for a long time.