Forever a baby

One day, AN asked me: "Mummy, do you know why I behave like a baby sometimes?"

(She likes to imitate babies, walking wobbly with legs wide opened, blabbering baby language, looking blankly at me when I talk to her etc )

I told her I guessed she probably likes me to pamper her like I used to when she was younger.

She said I was wrong and told me her reason: "Because I will not make you angry so much if I am a baby."

She had been listening to me even though she appears to be daydreaming sometimes. I once told her that I missed her baby days and I'm getting more often upset now because she doesn't obey as much as before. There are more struggles now because she knows what she wants, but we can't always let yet have it her way. I casually commented once that I wish she stays a baby forever.

And she, in her childlike innocence, tried to fulfill this impossible wish her way: by behaving like one.

Then I'm reminded again, that not every 'naughty' behavior happens because she's bad. AN, a 4 year old, just have different perceptions from us, adults, about how things work.