She's a Sly One

Lately, I have really enjoyed watching Alexa's personality mature.  She's still so sweet.  Sometimes her little face kills me.  It's still full of innocence and sweetness- most of the time.  She gets a mischievous, devious gleam in her eye when it comes to her brother, though. 

Alexa learned a long time ago that Andrew is: faster, bigger, and worldlier (I mean, he can anticipate her revenge, and do preemptive strikes against her.)  What Andrew cannot match up with is subtlety.  He doesn't see it happening.  He is incapable of dealing with it.  Alexa has subtlety, and it's only going to improve as she gets older. 

I LOVE watching it in action.  

Back over Christmas, Andrew, Alexa, and I were playing a game with my parents.  The game went like this: Alexa read a joke off of a card.  She "awarded" points to "whoever" answered the joke correctly- first. It was a game she made up, and she was the judge of how many points people earned, or if they answered questions right.  Except . . . only my mom was getting them right.  No matter what Andrew did, he couldn't get more points that my mom.  It was making him CRAZY.  This is why Alexa's brilliant though.  She didn't obviously issue points to my mom.  She didn't gloat.  She didn't laugh.  She didn't indicate in anyway that she was cheating Andrew . . . except she totally was.  Even when we called her out on it, she didn't really admit it.  Andrew was beside himself.  He's super competitive.  He KNEW he was beating my mom.  He KNEW it, but . . . Alexa never awarded him enough points to actually get ahead of her.  It was awesome.  I completely congratulated her.  

Figure out your strengths, and play to them is what I say.  

Tonight we were playing "Apples to Apples."  Somehow . . . Alexa kept picking Doug's and my cards and not Andrew's.  He was losing.  Like- as badly as me. (she was the only one that picked mine)  Alexa and Doug were kicking our tails.  Andrew was annoyed that he was losing, and Alexa was racking up.  She didn't really gloat (she did count her cards . . .loudly), she didn't tease Andrew.  She didn't rub his face in it.  She just kept winning.  He was frustrated that his LITTLE sister was beating him.  

She's way more subtle about getting treats than Andrew. I could have said sneaky, instead of subtle, but I'm encouraging her to develop a tactic to use against her brother, and as long as she includes me in the treat I let her have it.  Possibly not one of my better parenting methods, but I'm not changing.  She's doggone good at getting treats, and she always thinks of me, and bring me some.  Who'd argue with that?!  Because I won't . . . until she uses it against me.  And then, this sneakiness has got to go.  :-)

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