The night before last we were driving home from a scrumptious edition of family pizza night. Nate, being the loving and thoughtful husband that he is, decided to fill my car up with gas before we returned home.

As soon as we pulled into the fill station, Ava announced that she needed to go the the potty. It was late, I was tired and bringing a three year old into a public restroom is never my idea of a good time.

I explained to her that we were only a few minutes from home. She began to protest and when Nate got back in the car her protests took on a physical form. As she wiggled from one side of her seat to the other, he assured her that he would race the car home.

As Nate maneuvered the remaining six blocks to our house, Ava begged and cried to go to the potty in every building we past. Her potty dance that had started as a little wiggle had taken the form of a tango restrained only by her safety buckle.

Finally in a fit of desperation she cried, “Mama, I can’t hold it anymore. I’m going to go potty in my car seat.”

“No” I demanded as Nate hit the accelerator, and I turned to coach her on how to hold it for a few more moments. Cleaning her car seat was most definitely not on my list of things to do.

Once home, she hopped all the way to the steps, crying “Oh, oh, oh,” with every bounce.

Nate helped her up the stairs and pointed her to the bathroom, “Okay, Ava can go potty now.”

Ava immediately ceased writhing, rounded her cheeks, and declared, “I was just teasin’!”

Nate and I stared at her in disbelief.

“I was just teasin’,” she giggled, “Isn’t that funny?”

Oh, how her uncles would have been proud.

And she was so proud of herself, her eyes twinkling as she recounted how she had silly she had been to pretend that she had to go potty.

So, yes, we laughed with her and sent her silly self to bed.

Not only is teasing is as natural to members of my family as breathing, but with all the kidding she has endured in the past three years, she was essentially trained to spin a tall tale.

Tomorrow we will begin lessons on the difference between teasing and telling the truth and perhaps the boy who cried wolf, but tonight we will laugh over this expression of her DNA.