A "Win-Win" Situation

Like her daddy, Allison Clare is always pleading for things that I am trying to ration. She'll ask to watch Ernie singing "Rubber Ducky" online over and over again, or she'll want cup after cup of juice, which we try to limit since if she had her way, she would drink juice all day and eat no real food. The other day, while asking to see Elmo and Kermit figuring out the meaning of loud and quiet for the millionth time (another Sesame Street snippet available on Youtube, and a favorite of Mommy and Daddy's since we are hoping the lesson will sink in), she looked up at me imploringly and seriously and said, "Win. Win." I didn't get it, and she kept repeating it, nodding slowly while staring intently at me (another of her persuasive tactics--the slow, "join me" nod): "Win. Win." Then she held up one tiny finger. "Win. Win."

I guess that even though she doesn't actually know what "one" means, she has figured out that when I say yes, it is often followed by "Just one." Just one Kleenex for you to pull out of the box and pretend to blow your nose with. Just one cookie. Just one song. For her, "one" is permissive in some magic and mysterious way.

We've been counting with her, and she has a rough understanding of one and five, but nothing in between. If we hold up 2-4 fingers, she unfolds the rest and then announces, "Five!" But the reason I think she doesn't have a very good grasp of the meaning of "one" is that when I was putting her to bed, I asked her, "Are you ready to go to bed now?" And she said, "No no no. One. One." One what?, one wonders, and one may never know.