Not Quite Mom...

For a number of weeks, Jackson has taken to using the phrase, "no, not quite." He says it with the sweetest, thoughtful tone and never inserts "yet." Obviously he hears us say it all the time, but his application of this parrot phrase have been phenomenally creative, and oh so cute. 

"Would you like to have lunch Jackson?"

"Not quite Mom. I'm playing"

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"Jackson it's time to to preschool bud."

"No, not quite. There's no preschool today."

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"Jackson, do you need to go potty?"

(Sigh) "Not quite."

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"OK, go climb in bed Jackson."

"No, not quite mom. I need to eat my dinner."

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This is all part of a larger stalling phase he's embraced with great talent. Mostly it comes out in that last situation, at bedtime. Somehow 8:00 seems to be the magical time of hunger, a sincere desire to slowly clean up all toys, and go poop in the toilet. The "not quite" part still makes me laugh, but by 8:30 I start turning into mad mama when we're still working on putting his blankets on.

I suppose we should a) not let him do these things--though I like that he eventually eats his dinner, cleans up toys and poops in the toilet--or b) move up his bed time. With the crazy time change of last week that we're all still adjusting to, this bed time move up could be difficult. I can only imagine Jackson looking out the window and sighing, "not quite mom. It's not dark yet." But, to get a happy mama, we are quite going to have to.