Daddy, you get timeout!

For the past couple of week there has been a sign posted at our church's daycare saying that it would be closed on Dec. 14th. Since Nancy and I are not emotionally ready to sit with our two hooligans through a full service, we decided to grant ourselves dispensation and skip mass today - which meant we had more time in the morning to start our day.

After getting the girls up and dressed, Nancy and I had were sitting on our bed when Erin marched in and said, "Mommy, Daddy, you lay down go night-night." Nancy and I looked at each other and decided, ok we'll lay down.

Erin then put her finger up to her mouth and Shh'ed us, told us once again to go night-night and closed the door. Nancy and I decided to play this up and we started hooting and hollering just like the girls do when they don't want to nap. Erin yelled back at us.. "You go NIGHT-NIGHT!"

She came back into our room carrying some of her books to give to us to read and said, "Here your books. Go night-night". We asked if we could get a couple of stuffed animals and Erin went galloping off to fulfill the request. When she came back with Curious George, I asked if she would sing to us. Erin did her best at singing the ABC's and then said, "No more talking. Mommy, Daddy go night-night" and once again closed the door.

To complete this re-enactment of our going to bed ritual, I asked for some water to which Erin gladly went too to get. While she was gone fetching sippies for us, Nancy and I were discussing how in our extra morning playtime with the girls neither one of us had taken the dog out yet. So I got up from bed and went downstairs to let Buddy out in the back yard.

When I got back Erin was standing in the room and removing the folded clothes on the rocking chair and throwing them on the floor. When she saw that I came back she pointed to the now empty rocking chair and said "Daddy, you get timeout."

"What did I do?" I asked. "Daddy, you bad. No get out of bed at night-night." I was in fact, in violation of Rule #3 of Big Girl Beds (#1 is no jumping, and #2 is no playing with the window blinds).

This was all in good fun and Nancy and I just marvel at the level of sophistication the girls play has become. Their ability to imagine and recreate scenarios down to the minute detail is amazing. And the rules of these games are so intricate and consistent. It is really neat to see their little brains developing and staring to navigate social order.

Luckily my timeout only lasted a few seconds. But I respected the rules of Erin's game and I sat in the chair until I told her I was sorry and asked if I could get up. She said yes and with that we all went downstairs to get on our coats and shoes to leave for our parish's holiday pancake breakfast.

On the drive to the "pancake party" as the girls were calling it, Nancy and I were asking ourselves if we give the girls too many timeouts since it is making this much of an impression on them. But Nancy said that they hardly ever get any timeouts at home. We know they get them once in a while at our baby-sitters, but still not that often. We have heard Erin give her stuffed animals timeouts lately. It's usually after one of the animals has "bitten" or "grabbed a toy" from another one of the stuffed animals. Erin is certainly grasping the concept of consequences (more so than some adults I know). Nancy suspects it's more of a power trip than anything else. There is not that much Erin gets to be in charge of in her life, and she is asserting herself over her stuffed animals. It's so neat to watch.

What a sweet and amazing way to start a lovely day.

PS - they loved the pancakes! Erin had 4 pancakes and 3 sausages! Ev had 2 sausages and 1 pancake. And, they did not like Santa - we'll post photos soon!