For the most part, our kids are great. I know everyone says that about their kids
and they would probably be right.
There's definitely something special about our kids though. Thing 1 and Thing 2 have an amazing bond with
each other that I pray never goes away.
Even at 6 (and 1/3!) and 4 and a half, they still don't fight or even get
on each others' nerves. These kids can
entertain themselves for hours on end down in the basement without so much as
the TV on.
And this is how today's story begins.
Just after Christmas this year, the four of us spent a few
days in Niagara Falls. It was a
remarkably mild and snow-less December, so we lucked out with the weather and
managed to walk around Clifton Hill and the boardwalk with relative ease.
Two full days in a hotel room with your kids, no matter how
pleasant they are, is still a very long time.
This is why, when we returned home after the trip at 11:30
am, we sent the kids downstairs to play with their new toys and hid upstairs
for a few hours. And by a few, I mean
five. Now we made dinner early and
yelled down that it was on the counter if they were hungry, so as to not feel
entirely neglectful. Otherwise, they
were on their own. And their they stayed
and played until 5:00 in the evening when I heard Thing 2 crying.
I ventured downstairs to see what happened and noticed both
kids were in the bathroom with the door mostly shut. Upon entering, I discovered why the kids had
been downstairs for so long.
They were having a snowball fight. With spitballs.
The bathroom was a war zone of wet toilet paper balls
plastering the walls and floors. The
toilet and sink were backed up. Wet rolls of half used up toilet paper
littered the floor. God I wish I would
have taken a picture. Thing 2 had
stopped crying by this point, but now they pair of them were scared. The realization that they were in trouble had
just hit the pair of them.
After making them help clean it all up (which took all of
five minutes) , repercussions had to be handed out. Thing 2 was sent to bed at 5:30 for her part
in the TP massacre. She's a tough one to
punish as she cares not if you take away toys or cartoons. She slept until 8 the next morning.
Thing 1 on the other hand cares deeply for his Lego and his
Beyblades. The mere threat of removal of
either can motivate him to do just about anything. So his punishment was the dismantling of one
of the Lego vehicles he had received for Christmas and had promptly built
Christmas morning. He was utterly devastated.
But really, if that's all the trouble they can muster up in over
5 hours left to their own devices, I'll take it.
