I am honestly not sure how, because she's not around anyone that would have taught her this, but she somehow suddenly learned how to lie. I mean it was overnight. One day she didn't know what it meant...had never even tried it and the next *BAM*. Nothing big...it's over obvious things. Like the fact that she obviously hurt Abby on purpose...or that she obviously had an accident in her pants while outside. Things that even though her mouth is telling me no...the evidence strongly proves otherwise. One of my biggest things is honesty. Just be honest about it. Do not lie. So last week after getting in trouble for lying to me about something I had to sit down and have a talk with her about what it means to lie and to be dis-honest and why it's not ok and what can happen if we are not honest. (such an easy principle and yet so easily forgotten by adults!) I also explained that if she is honest with me from the start she will be in much less trouble than if she lies and tries to cover up what happened. And then of course I had to give her the "A mama always knows..." speech just to knock a little extra fear of God into her. I felt she actually listened and grasped what we discussed. I tried hard to break it down so she'd understand it. Little did I know how very much she understood.
Flash forward to later that same day. It had been a doozy of a day to begin with...she'd had more potty accidents then even remotely necessary and I was ready to tear my hair out over a myriad of other things that had occurred. Adam and I were discussing her sudden ability to lie and where on earth it could have come from, when Hannah comes down stairs with completely different pants and chonies on. So I ask her if she had another accident. And for a moment she just stands there. I repeated the question thinking perhaps she just wasn't listening. She says, "Well...well mama I'm not gonna lie about it." "Oooook" I say. "So, then tell me what happened." "I can't!" she says. "I won't lie about it." Right. We've established that sooo...I asked again what happened. Hannah gets all flustered and says, " We're just...we're just not not gonna talk about it. I won't lie. So we're just not gonna talk about it." At this point I am astounded and trying awful hard not to laugh. It's not funny but the fact that she caught on THAT quickly to what lying means and how she can evade the actual act of lying....we're in for a ride with this one. Oh. My.
