Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Breakfast, consequences, and construction sites

Yesterday morning at breakfast Drew waddled over and hoisted his baby body into a chair to sit with his dad and brother. I was at first astonished- not that he had climbed, he does that all the time- but that he sat like a regular person and was not monkeying across the table. Then, in thinking about it, I was not surprised. After all, he does observe everything, and, excluding David, the rest of the family never sits on the kitchen table. Drew just looked so very cute and pleased with himself that for once I ran and grabbed the camera!
Later that morning, we were all upstairs and I heard Drew crying in David's room. "What happened?" I asked David. "I had to give him a consequence mom, he needed a consequence."
I am still not sure what Drew did, but I noticed that he was holding his chubby little hand while crying and then saw a toy mallet nearby. Part of me was trying not to laugh as I told David that only moms and dads dole out the consequences. The other part of me was horrified that David considers pounding someone with a hammer a "consequence." David's consequences are usually a time out, getting a toy taken away, leaving someplace or even a spanking. But we have never hit his hand with tools! Furthermore, one would think he would obey better if he really did think that this could be one of his consequences!
Drew rarely takes a morning nap any more, but due to his new skill, the injury (he was really okay) and being up a good portion of the night (teething?) he took an hour nap and I got a little more peace yesterday morning.
Later on, to give David an outlet, I let him make a construction site. This is his favorite thing to do and it keeps him busy for a LONG time. I needed to be indoors so he had to be content with coffee grounds in a glass pie dish, but usually he makes intricate roads and dirt piles with real rubble.
Oh, all this took place before eleven am.

2 comments:

April said...

You had a busy morning! Life with kiddos is busy but awesome all at the same time! I will have to try the coffee grounds idea. You know I hate coffee but I can make an exception to buy some to make dirt.

Catcher In My Eye said...

Hi, April, this is Nat's Mom, Deb!
You can also use dry pinto beans or dry rice in a metal cake pan at the TABLE, reminding the kids not to eat the dry grains and beans! LOL