Of Anger and Giggles

As a parent, you do not actually have your eyes on your child every moment of every day.  At times they are in the care of others and at other times, though they may be under your watchful eye, they are taking in more than you are even aware of.  And so it comes to be that they produce actions or phrases which just confound you, leaving you asking yourself, as you chuckle silently, "Where did she learn that?!"

So it is with Micaiah's catch-phrase of choice when in a particularly angry or ornery mood.  When adamant about disliking an action, food, or command, she always underlines her negative words of choice with, "Never, ever, ever!!!" - which, in and of itself, is humorous to me because I'm not sure where she picked up this repetitive exclamation, other than possibly when she's performing a dangerous action which I am quick to forbid.

What gets me most, though, is how she follows the aforementioned cry.  This is what we hear on her bad days, "Never, ever, ever!!!  HA, HA, HA!!!"  Almost as if she's picked up the maniacal laughter of some cartoon villain.  Only she doesn't realize it.  To her, the final three syllables are only a strong punctuation on the severity of her anger, cried out with the most stubborn of pouts as she stomps away, foot to the ground with each "HA".

And it kind of cracks us up every time.

Of course her strong will is a force with which to be reckoned, and we're working on it, but we still enjoy a secret giggle over the fact that our daughter is unwittingly pulling the rug out from under her own very intense, emotional moments.  Poor girl ;)