There is a downside to the mutual-adoration thing the kids have going on.
Kisae has taken to bursting into tears if Ben declines her request to play. She's not faking it, but she does seem to resort to crying very quickly when Ben denies her. And he then caves -- reinforcing for her, I fear, that the tears get you what you want.
Ben gets all huffy, if Kisae doesn't want to be all warm and fuzzy with him first thing in the morning. "She doesn't like me!" he'll complain. Good grief.
Kisae also sometimes seems to decide what she wants based on what Ben wants. If I ask her what she wants for breakfast, she might say, "What Ben having?" Though this morning, she asked, but then stuck with her own (different) choice.
Ben also seems to relish in his top-dog status a bit too much sometimes. Sunday late afternoon Kisae asked if we could go to the park. I told Ben we should all go because he'd had a friend over for several hours earlier in the day, so now it was time to do something for her. He didn't want to go and figured he could convince her to stay home. "I'm her best friend, mom, she'll be happy playing at home with me." Hmm.
Still, there's a lot of genuine enjoyment going on, despite the bouts of manipulation.
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