The Negotiator

Elijah cracks us up!  We never taught him to negotiate, but he's tried to ever since he could talk!

Example: 
D/A: "Elijah, bath time soon!"
E: "Okay, 3 minutes!"
D/A: "5 seconds!"
E: "Okay! 5...4...3...2...1...beep, beep, beep!" (b/c that's the noise the microwave makes when we count down with it)

To be clear, we do not condone negotiating with our two year-old.  We are his parents and he needs to obey us.  Still, we have to admit it's pretty funny that he always tries to split the baby or come up with other Solomonic compromises.  The other day, Daniel told Elijah that he had 7 bites left before he was done with dinner.  (Aside: The number 7 was arbitrary, but Daniel used it b/c he guessed it would take about that many to finish the meal.)

E: "Okay, 3 bites?"
D: "No, 7."
E: "Okay, 2 bites??"
D (laughing): "That's the wrong way, son!  You're supposed to go up from 3.  Fine, fine, let's settle at 5 BIG bites."
E: "Okay, 5 bites!"

Good stuff.