Do or Don't?
Fabulous or Faux Pas?
Yeah, I don't think she'll be hitting the red carpet anytime soon. Even Angelina Jolie couldn't pull off the stinky sneakers.
Still ultra-hot here. Downright stifling inside. One of the few days in a year that we could actually use A/C downstairs.
I sat and talked to Julian tonight while he had dinner. He wanted to know how we knew the sun was a planet, then asked if people could carry the sun. When I said no, the sun is much too big for people, he asked, "What about 10,000 people?" and then, "What if the people were really big, so big they were bigger than this house?" It's so cute -- and quite fascinating -- watching him reach out to learn what's big and small.
What wasn't cute was hearing him and Gabriel shouting their favorite new phase (f---ing b-----) in our backyard together. As soon as I heard that, I yanked them inside very seriously and told them they couldn't play out back if they said things like that. I tried several times, but being together, they wouldn't take me seriously despite my genuinely grave manner. Unfortunately, it took a group spank to get their attention.
Then in the bath, I told them a story of a friend who got his mouth washed out with soap for saying a bad word, and that he never did it again. I had to explain that bad words means you have a dirty mouth, and that soap tastes terrible. Gabriel started to laugh, but Julian was intimidated. I kept going, and used people they know as an example. "Would you say those mean mean things to Bo Yuan?" (our next-door neighbor who they love). "What if someone said that to Katrina?"
Well, I think all I accomplished was further impressing upon them the power of the words. But the truth is, I really don't want our neighbors to hear that, and I really will forbid them from playing outside. And you know, I really will carry out the soap threat.
I MUST work on remodeling decisions and packing...but it's 10pm, finally everyone's in bed, everything's cleaned up -- I just wanna VEG! Oh good, there's Dave with some sushi.
5/15/08
2 comments:
Oh, R's gotten the soap a number of times. I finally realized that it didn't seem to bother him that much. So I moved on to pepper (I know - so barbaric...but really...this kid is SUCH a nightmare at this point in his life) and boy, does that make an impression. I mean he REALLY hates it. Ask me if he still says bad words. Yes. All the time. *sigh*
Maybe you've gotta start early. I'm pretty sure MommieN is referring to me in this post. Funny thing is, I'm kind of appalled at myself. How young *was* my son when I did that? Two? OMG, someone should have turned me in for child abuse! Then again, he never says stuff like that now. It stopped at "Dammit!"
S.
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