Keeping Up with Toddlers

Situation 1 (circa 7am):  Ashley climbed into our bed beside James on Sunday night. It must have been the wee hours of the morning. James was too tired to bring her back to her bed. Next morning James tried to discuss with Ashley her reason for getting into the bed when she knows about staying in her bed all night. Their brief dialogue demonstrated the tricky business of boundaries and went like this:
James: Why did you come into our bed last night?
Ashley: Why did you let me?
James: ...
A reminder that our job is to set and enforce boundaries and theirs is to challenge them!

Situation 2 (circa 7:10am): About 10mins after the above encounter I found myself in the bathroom helping Ashley who was resisting washing her hands, which she does from time to time. I found myself getting irritated with her as I was telling her to wash her hands. Ashley looked at me with head slightly to the side, her chin in the air and announced, "I'm not going to talk to you right now. I'm not going to talk to you while you're grumpy." She then started to walk very proudly out of the bathroom and all I could do was burst out laughing. She immediately turned around and laughed with me, the situation completely diffused. That's my girl. She is developing excellent boundaries.

Situation 3 (circa 9am): Ashley, Caitlin and I were sitting at the table eating some toast. Caitlin was looking for a treat despite our ‘no desert after breakfast' policy. Lately Caitlin has been pushing the envelope to see what she can get if she yells when she has been told no to something. So there she is, sitting beside me, and yelling in a miserable "I'm not happy about this" sort of way. I looked at her and, at first, felt annoyed but then I had this huge and quirky impulse to just yell back at her and watch her reaction :) So I did (in a toned downed sort of way of course!). Her immediate response was startled surprise, which swiftly turned to a collapse into delighted giggles. She and Ashley thought this was hilarious and we all three spent the next 5mins yelling out loud and laughing together. Another irritating moment completely diffused (and they were so distracted they completely forgot about the treat).