Ben the Manipulator

Scene: It's bedtime. Ben has his binky, we'd read numerous stories and he was clutching his baby Elmo doll to his chest, so I put him into his crib.

Normally he'd just lie down and go to sleep. He's pretty good about going to bed, at least initially. However, instead he said, "Poop! Poop! I poop!" I sniffed and didn't smell anything, but he was pretty insistent. So up on the changing table he went where I discovered that I was right. No poop. He was still saying "poop," though, so I thought maybe he meant he had to poop. He's getting better about recognizing that feeling. I read him another book, thinking maybe we could catch the poop before bed. I didn't want him to sleep in it all night, or worse, wake me up in the middle of the night to change him.

But the poop never appeared, so after his extra book I put him back in his crib. He started saying "poop" again, but I told him it was time to sleep and left the room. He cried for a moment, but then fell asleep.

In the morning I was a little afraid his butt would be screaming red after sleeping in poop all night. Quite the contrary. He was totally clean and it dawned on me. That was Ben's first attempt to manipulate his way out of bedtime.