Jen

Well, Nathan didn’t learn his lesson from being grounded from his TV shows yesterday. He still snuck out of bed last night. See if he was just sneaking out of bed to simply play with his toys, I wouldn’t be so frustrated. But he sneaks out of bed and messes with the heater and humidifier we have in his room. (We don’t have central heat and air, so we have to keep a heater in his room at night or it gets way too cold.) Those are dangerous for him to mess with, and sooner or later, he’s going to learn that Mommy and Daddy mean business when we tell him not to touch them and to stay in bed at night.

I don’t care when he gets up in the morning and plays with his toys. We hear him and immediately go in his room and remove the heater and humidifier. But night time means bed time.

It’s funny because I remember when I was a kid, I used to sneak out of bed to play with my toys, too. I could always hear my parents walking down the hall to check on me, and I would scramble back into bed, throw the covers over me, and pretend like I was asleep. I used to also sneak out of bed to grab a book and a flashlight, and then I would curl up under the covers with my flashlight and read.

Nathan’s not quite at that age yet. He always gets caught because he’s so loud. His little footsteps stomp all over the floor, echoing with freedom as he runs around the room with excitement. We can also hear the clicking noise the heater makes when the buttons are pushed. And last night I caught him messing around once again with his humidifier. It’s a penguin-shaped humidifier, complete with a swiveling head.

Nathan decaptiated it last night.

I walked in him to find him standing near the humidifier with the penguin’s head in his hands. “Look, Mommy!” he exclaimed upon seeing me. “I found this!” And then he proceeds to ceremoniously hand me the penguin’s head. As if that would get him out of trouble. Like the head was just LAYING around on the floor in some dark corner, lost for months, collecting dust and providing a home for tiny spiders and he JUST SO HAPPENED to have stumbled upon it.

Yeah right.

So he’s lost his TV privileges again for today. Along with the stories I read to him before bedtime. If he keeps it up, we’ll take away his dinosaurs (oh how he loves his dinosaurs). I hope he stops being so head-strong about this because he’s just going to get into more and more trouble. I hate that for him… but regardless, we still have to teach him about consequences.

In other news, Nathan ran up to me for a hug the other day. I squatted down to accept it and he wrapped his little arms around me. As he was hugging me, he patted my back and said sweetly, “You’re so precious.”

Precious? I couldn’t help but giggle. I sure do love that kid. Mischievousness and all.