I now know that Savannah does occasionally listen to me. While putting her to bed this evening, we were missing a particular book that she wanted to read (Where to, Wombat?).
I knew it was downstairs and Conor had run out to deliver a gift, so I tried mightily to convince her to read a different book that wouldn’t force me to hunt for it. She looked right at me and said “Mama get book. Sava stay right here on chair, no move.”
Wow. I tell her to stay places all the time and she never listens. This was impressive and I felt I needed to reward her. I was very skeptical though.
I went downstairs (after closing her in her room and double checking the baby gate), found the book and there she was, in the exact same position I left her in.