We can see it coming from a mile away: Kiah purses her lips and puffs up her chest, then demands, “No, ME.” She reserves an oddly deep tone of voice for this proclamation, along with a certain accent and emphasis that makes it sound more like “maaaaaay.” The sass dripping from those pouty lips suggests years of practice, belying her mere 24 months.

I don’t want to say we hear this dozens of times a day, yet I also don’t want to say we don’t. Her independence — or illusions thereof — has been asserting itself with the tenacity and willful ignorance characteristic to the toddler age for some time now. “No, maaaaaay” is apparently applicable in any and all situations, regardless of Kiah’s actual ability to follow through; she is as comfortable boasting it when she is inextricably tangled in

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