No...

As Riley gets older her vocabulary continues to expand seemingly exponentially each day.  Something that was baby babble yesterday becomes a clearly spoken word today.  I love that she is learning new things.  The sound of Riley saying "Daddy" is wonderful and I don't tire of hearing it.  Of course, she doesn't string the words together like, "daddydaddydaddydaddydaddydaddy," and so on.  No, she wants something and calls me.  She doesn't chant it or scream.  It sounds great every time. 

But there is one word that crawls all over me when it is spoken by children to their parents.  She has learned it and speaks it clearly and directly.  Parents say it together..."NO."  That's right, she has learned to not only speak the word "NO," but knows when to use it.  It matters not to her who she says it to, but she seems to enjoy saying it.  And, Riley is an equal opportunity refuser.  She tells me, her mother, and Cooper.  Of course, she yells at Cooper usually because she does not like something Cooper said or did.  Anyway I have an example.  Away we go.

Last evening before getting ready for work I intended to give Riley her bath and get her into her jammies.  It is usually something I do on my nights off, but I had a little extra time before I had to get ready for work.  So, she got an early bath.  Riley was sitting on Ashley's lap in the living room when the following verbal exchange took place between us:

Daddy:  Riley, want to take a bath?
Riley:  NO.
Daddy:  Riley, bath time.
Riley:  NO.
Daddy:  Riley Grace...
Riley:  NO.
Daddy: Riley, go to the bathroom
Riley:   NO.
Daddy:  Riley Grace, go to the bathroom.
Riley:  (shrugs shoulders) Ok.

And so went my night.  Were it not so funny I would have gotten upset.  There was my cute little darling sitting on mommy's lap and sternly refusing to comply with her father's demand that she take a bath.  She finally got into the tub and bath time went as normal.  Then she had to get out of the tub.  Normally she doesn't put up a big fight.  But tonight, armed with her new word, we repeated a similar exchange when I instructed her to get out of the tub.  I told her it was time to get out and she refused.  I let the water down the drain and she stood her ground.  She started to get cold after the water ran out and she finally acquiesced.

It is nice that I can easily overcome her repeated use of that word.  With her size, I can simply pick her up when I tell her to come to where I am and she responds in the negative.  For those keeping score, that is Daddy 2, Riley 0.  I know the victories will be short-lived, but let me bask in them for one night.