The Short Con

So you know how you're walking along and a piece of clothing catches on something?  Like the pocket of a pair of shorts on a door handle (how I destroyed a cabinet door during the tile project) or a pull cord from a hoodie gets caught in something.  (Yes, I said hoodie.  Please, try to get past it quickly.  It's an easy description of something that can get caught.)

So yesterday, the baby gate was leaning against a wall because Ben was taking a nap.  Otherwise it would be across the hall at the foot of the stairs.  I'm upstairs in our bedroom and Rachel's down on the main floor.  All of the sudden I hear "Oh no!"  I poke my head out of our room and ask Rachel what's wrong.  I see her standing by the gate, and a tie from her shirt (it ties in back) was hooked on part of the baby gate.  "I'm stuck," she told me, sounding really concerned.  I encouraged her to get unstuck herself, telling her it's probably not very stuck and that she's really smart and can figure it out, adding that if she's really stuck, I'll be down in a second to help her.  She fusses with it and protests that she's still stuck.  So I repeat that I'll be down in a second. 

All of the sudden, her demeanor changes.   The concern is gone from her face, her posture, her voice.  She lifts the string off of the gate, smiles, looks at me and announces that she was just kidding.

Are you kidding me?  My daughter, at the age of 5, planned out a con, all the way from looping the shirt to the gate to calling out in anguish and concern.

Wow.