Watch What You Say...

Lydia is at a funny stage. Everything is very concrete. For example, I told her we were going to Out of this World, a pizza and play place. She said "how do we get back in to this world?" She is also in a "I must push the limits and freak out at the drop of a hat" phase right now. The combo can be bad news, as illustrated below.

A few weeks ago I came home from book club and asked Ty how the night went. Turns out, not surprisingly, that Lydia and Luke had not wanted to go to sleep and came out of their room five zillion times after being put to bed. Lydia went to the bathroom three times, Luke spouted many untrue stories about trains and "lights flashing" and being run over by a train, etc. The rule has been that if they came out for anything other than an approved reason after being put to bed (going to the bathroom, throwing up, bleeding profusely...that about covers the acceptable reasons) the childproof lock went on the inside of their door so they couldn't get out. Luke thought it was hilarious to try to get the lock put on, because it always put Lydia in such a panic. "What if I have to go potty? I'll have to pee pee on the floor or in my bed! AHHHHH!" Scream scream, cry cry, on and on. Inevitably, each time the lock went on she would knock loudly on the door two minutes later stating she had to pee, and would go squeeze two drops out, go back in the room, and they would go to sleep.

That night was no different. Luke was laughing as the lock went on, Lydia was panicking and yelling about having to pee, despite having gone three times already. The knock came as usual a few minutes later, but Tyler said he wasn't letting them out. "I'm going to have to pee on the floor then, AHHHHH!" "Fine, whatever, go ahead, you're not coming out," he replied. Eventually the yelling ended and the hoodlums went to bed.

I went in to check on them before going to bed. The first thing I encountered when I opened the door was Luke, completely naked, lying on the floor. (This was pre-potty training, mind you.) It had been a warm day, but not THAT warm. I laughed as I called Tyler in to see the site. Then I looked at Lydia on her bed and SHE was buck naked too!!! We were trying to figure out what they had been doing in there while putting underwear on Lydia and a diaper on Luke. As Tyler was putting the diaper on Luke he felt a little wet spot on the floor right about where he had been laying. Feeling around some more he found another little wet spot close to that one. We cleaned it up, figuring since Luke was naked lying on the floor he must have peed in his sleep.

The next morning I asked the kids about being naked and the wet spots. "Well, we were hot and sweaty Mommy, so we took off our clothes." Can't fault them for being practical I guess. "And, I told Daddy I was going to have to pee on the floor and he said it was fine, he said go ahead, so I did." Apparently Luke thought it looked like so much fun he joined her in peeing on the floor. Of course, this was three weeks after I had the carpets cleaned.

Tyler and I are now very careful what we say to Lydia, even in the midst of her tantrums.