No way!

I yelled "No way!" yesterday after Ellie asked Madeline, "Want to have a pillow fight, Baby?" and chucked a throw pillow at her while she was sitting in the Bebe Pod. Madeline laughed. And the pillow missed her head by a few inches, thank goodness.

The thing that caught my attention in this situation is my choice of words. "No way!" Hmmm. Where have I heard that before? Oh, I know! It is what is yelled at me when I ask Ellie to get dressed, eat her dinner, take a bath or any other task that is not super exciting to a 2.99 year old.

I have no idea where Ellie learned "No way!" or where she learned to say "Please. Please?!" with her voice going higher on the second "please." You must be born with it I guess, like the startle reflex of a newborn.

So in that instant, the instant of seeing something hurled at my five month old baby's head, I forgot all of the lessons of "1-2-3 Magic" and "Happiest Toddler on the Block" and just yelled "No way!" And you know what? It worked. Ellie looked at me, stunned. She told me, "I'm Ruby and Madeline is Louise and we were going to have a pillow fight. And Madelinz liked it." Well, Madeline likes chewing boarding passes in the airport security line but that doesn't mean it's OK.

Ellie promised no more pillow fights until Madeline is at least 5 and can consent and I'm thinking of activities for the girls while I'm making dinner that don't include Max & Ruby. And maybe something they can do together that doesn't have the word "fight" in its title.