Documented by Sam

Jeff and I had a date night not too long ago.  We went to dinner and a movie. The babysitter we've been using, Patrick, is very good with the kids.  He only has to say to Sam, "Time for bed" and she will listen.  However, this most recent babysitting occasion, Sam started giving Patrick a hard time and refused to go when he told her it was time.  In fact, she started whining saying she wanted Daddy to put her down.  Patrick told her that her father was not able to do that.  After more resistance, Sam said she was going to call Jeff.  Patrick told her we were at the movies, but that didn't slow her down.

We got out of the movie and Jeff looked down at his phone.  3 missed calls from home.  I looked down at my phone and saw a text message from Patrick "Everything is fine.  Sam is fighting me on going to sleep.  She keeps calling Jeff." 

I call home and tell Patrick not to kill himself trying to get her to go to sleep.  It's not worth making him miserable getting her down.  Sam doesn't have school the next day and whatever happens is fine with us.  I told him to feel flattered he was going through this.  Sam only pulls this crap with me, Jeff and my mom.  This means that she feels comfortable enough to bring Patrick into her inner circle.  Hopefully Patrick was amused by this because I need to keep him to come back.  We don't go out very often, but when we do, its nice to know we have a reliable sitter to call on.

Once we get back home from our evening out, we find out that Sam is indeed asleep.  However, Patrick explains to us what happened.  As Patrick is fighting with Sam to go to bed, she is calling Jeff and telling Ian to help her quickly write these numbers down. 

The next morning when Sam wakes up, she comes out of her room holding a square post-it note.  In her own handwriting is the following info "Daddy  9:00".   The first thing out of her mouth when she sees Jeff is, "Daddy, I tried calling you at 9:00 (pronounced Nine Zero Zero) and you weren't there!!"

She actually documented the time she called Jeff.  And she remembered that this was something she needed to tell him right away when she woke up.  It is very impressive that she had the forethought to want to write down the time of the calls.  It's also a little scary that she is only 5 years old.

If this is what we are dealing with at age 5, what's going to happen when she gets older?