When babies go wild

Jessica texted me today and told me I needed to write another post.

Look, I offered everybody here a chance to guest post, but the sign up sheet remained quite empty.



So I bought the kids an advent calender.  But it didn't come until the 4th of December.  I told the kids, in a slow and clear voice, they they each had to take a turn opening a door.  One kid per turn, one turn per day.  EXCEPT today, when we would open four doors at once to catch up.

Okay?  Does everybody get it?

Yes.

There will be ONE door opened everyday, which means only one kid gets a turn.  Except, for TODAY ONLY, we will open four doors.

Right-o

That means Sam will open a door, Owen will open a door, Lilly will open a door, Sam will open another door, and then there will be NO MORE TURNS until tomorrow.  When there will be ONLY ONE TURN.

Got it.

So we opened the four doors, and Lilly has said, approximately every half hour in the 24 hours since then, "You forgot to let me open my second door."

Today, when I got home, chaos was ensuing.  Sam explained that Lilly bit Owen and now they were both crying.

Some people might think that Owen would be crying louder, but that was not the case.  She was WAILING, "It's ALL MY FAULT!"  And I was like, "Well, yes, I can't argue with that."

And Owen's over there on the couch all, "hey, I'm the one with teeth marks."

She was all kinds of upset, so I didn't really feel there was a lot of point in yelling, but you can't just BITE people.

So I said, in a serious voice, "You are not allowed to open any doors on the advent calendar tonight, Lilly.  Only Owen can."

Which was AWESOME, because it was totally true ANYWAY, but she was devastated.  She would have been devastated anyway, but now she thinks I'm a strict, hard-line, no-biting, parent!  WIN!

Until tomorrow, and the rest of the 17 days of December.

Side note, when Chris came home, we told him what happened.  Chris said sternly, "Lilly, you are not allowed to bite."

And Lilly said, "I didn't BITE him, I just BIT him."

And Chris said, "Yes, you are NOT allowed to bite.  It's dangerous, and it hurts people -

 - "I didn't bite him, I bit him," Lilly interrupts.

"Yes," Chris says, "You can't bite."

"I DIDN'T BITE him, I BIT him."

Oh stop it you two.

"Lilly, you are not allowed to bit either."