Are YOU smarter than a 3-year-old?

Lance and the older kids had a meeting after church Sunday, so Ting Ting and I were alone for lunch. After lunch comes nap, and I'm not so good at making that happen. Usually on the weekends, Lance takes her upstairs and gets her right to sleep, but when he's not around I'm in trouble.

Sunday she was goofing around, ignoring my attempts to corral her. As I gathered her blanket and closed the blinds, she picked up her toy phone and "called" her grandparents.

"Hello, Papa and Lao Lao. It's Ting Ting!" she said. She proceeded to chat for a minute, then asked me if I wanted to talk to them.

Sure, I said. I had a plan.

"Hi, Papa and Lao Lao," I said. "Yes . . . uh huh . . . well, yes, Ting Ting IS about to take a nap . . .yes, we were just about to go to bed . . . OK, we'll talk to you later. Bye Bye!"

I hung up the phone.

"Papa and Lao Lao told me they would say goodbye so you could take your nap now," I told her somewhat smugly. (Good one, Mama.)

Ting Ting looked at me thoughtfully, then picked up the phone again.

"Hi Papa," she said. "I don't like to take a nap right now. Uh huh . . . OK . . . OK, Papa, Bye Bye."

She hung up the phone and met my gaze.

"He said I don't have to take one today!" she announced cheerfully.

It's abundantly clear to me that in this ongoing battle of wits, I am unarmed.