Hard Lessons

Pierce had to learn his first hard lesson tonight. When I got home from the gym, I walked in to the carpet full of change. The kids have been obsessed with taking their change out of their piggy banks and putting them in a box. Well, apparently they decided to throw them all over the house. When I walked in it was obvious things had not been going well. Keith said the kids had not been listening the entire night. I guess they needed some Mommy smack down. Right away Pierce went to time out. Every time Elle tried to put the money back he would take it out and throw it around. After his time out I was watching them pick up. He put some of the money in the box, looked right at me, and took it out preparing to throw it. I lost it. I grabbed him up and said he was going to bed early. Wow. Talk about wailing. I did his shower, brushed his teeth, and got him ready for bed. At first he wasn't too upset because he thought Elle had to go to bed too. When he found out it was just him he almost made himself throw up. I had decided that the morning ritual needed to be changed so I set his clothes out for tomorrow and told him that when he woke up he needed to get dressed before he came down for breakfast. I then read a book to him and put him to bed. About ten minutes later he came down the stairs fully dressed in his clothes tomorrow. When I told him that he was supposed to be in bed, he started crying so hard that he could barely breathe. I think he thought if he got dressed he wouldn't have to go to bed early. Of course Keith and I both wanted to cave, but if we did then he would know the next time he didn't have to go to bed early. So, I took him back up, put his jammies on him...again, and sang him a song. Right now he is still in bed.

When Elle was younger she got in trouble and had to go to bed early. Pierce was about 14 months old. While she was crying I told her that sometimes lessons are hard to learn. The next day Pierce got in trouble for something and she looked right at him and said "Pierce, lessons are hard to learn!" I think tonight is the first night he is learning that lesson!!! :)