If I wouldn’t have known her as the sweet loving angel that she is, I would think my daughter is an evil genius. She is only 19 months old and when you take her prematurity into account she is more like a 15 month old in development (quickly catching up mind you). But there are times that I think she has tricks up her sleeve. I’m convinced she pulls out The Art of War from underneath her teddy bear at night and studies strategy while we are all sleeping.

Case in point, the other day right before bath time she was insistent on playing with my phone. I tried helplessly to hide it but she kept finding it. After continuously taking it away from her I put it in my pocket not to come out until she was sleeping. And to my surprise she gave up easily and just gave me one long drawn out “look.” You know the look I’m talking about. The one that says, “I’m remembering this and it’s gonna come back to kick you in your big ol mamma butt.”

This was taken when she was around a year old, but you get the picture. She’s got it down to an art.

And sure enough it did. After a nice long bath I wrapped her up in a towel and the doorbell rings. Of course it’s a salesmen. As I’m telling him to leave it happens. The unmistakable feeling of a warm stream suddenly flowing from my left hip down my leg and creating a puddle on the floor. I turned to look at the culprit siting on my hip and there it was again, the “look.” And this time it carried a slight satisfied smile.

I love her for with every bit of my soul and she’s the most amazing thing in my life (along with my husband of course). 99.9% of the time she is happy and hardly ever throws a fit. She’s adorable even when cunning and her intensity makes you wonder when exactly she plans to take over the world. Now, at 19 months I can’t imagine she did it on purpose but there’s a hesitation in the back of my mind that she just might be an incarnation of Joan of Arc with a little bit of Attila the Hun thrown in. Watch out world.