Since about the beginning of this year, randomly Kaia will say that her leg hurts, her knee hurts, her ankle hurts, her foot hurts, her stomach hurts, etc. She will say that a random body part hurts when she doesn’t want to walk, go up or down the stairs, go to the potty, wash her hands, etc. Chris and I both think she just makes these excuses and has likely learned this from her classmates at school to try to get out of doing things. But in the times when she’s tried to say that her leg hurts, for example, and we’re on our way home, and she clearly wants me to carry her, I dangle up a chocolate coin wrapped in gold or a lollipop (never for eating, always as a prop), and I ask her if she wants it. And she always immediately lights up, nods, and says she wants it. Then, she will walk as fast as I want her to in order to get home just for the chance to hold said item.

So when that happens, it’s hard to really believe her when she says that something hurts.

But that leads me to think: if she fakes the pain now, how do I actually know when the pain is real?