A few nights ago we were struggling to get Johann through the bedtime routine. Every chance he got, he stalled. For booktime we usually ask him to choose three books. Johann decided months ago we needed to read at least that many every night, one for each of us. Eric was late coming into the bedroom. Johann couldn’t decide which books, so I chose three. Then he added more. At one point there were about ten books on the bed. I put some on the table, he put them back on the bed. This went on for a little while, until I finally managed to get it down to five books on the bed. Johann kept saying we would read all of them, “OK,Mommy? OK!” He likes to answer himself with the answer he wants to hear. I said that there were five books on the bed and we were only reading three. Two books needed to go onto the table. I was trying to get Johann to decide before we started reading to end it there. He didn’t want to eliminate any. But it was getting late and Eric still hadn’t come into the bedroom, so I decided to start.
I asked which book he wanted to hear first and then second. Then I reminded Johann he needed to choose just one for number three and Daddy would read it when he came. Right then Eric came into the bedroom. I had already put the two books we finished onto the table. Johann smiled and then said, “OK. Daddy’s here. Now we can read our three books. See Mommy? 5-2=3. There are three books on the bed just like you said!” He was quite pleased with himself and I have to admit he’s very good at making these kind of jokes and orchestrating things to go the way he’d like them to. Eric and I exchanged the “he did it again, he’s too smart for us” look and laughed. So we ended up reading all five books. When he tried it again the next night, he had that look in his eye: can I get away with it again? He was out of luck. I told Johann, “I let you get away with it last night, but tonight we’re just reading three books.”