Graffiti

I remember Emma going through a coloring-on-the-wall phase when she was about 2 1/2. She had received some bath crayons for Christmas, and she figured that since it was okay to draw on the wall in the bath, it must be perfectly acceptable to draw on any other wall in the house. But it was okay...she was only 2 1/2 and her confusion was understandable. We made it clear the drawing on the wall was a big no-no, and the problem was quickly resolved. Katherine, however, has no such excuse. She is 4 1/2 years old. She has no reason to believe that it is acceptable to draw on the wall (and carpet, and toys). And yet, that doesn't seem to deter her in the least. The first time she did this, I corrected her, she apologized and promised never to do it again. The second time, I put her in time out for longer than usual, and took her crayons away. And she apologized and promised never to do it again. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find even more artwork later, as I am sure that there are enough crayons between couch cushions, under beds, and in dresser drawers to keep our ward's nursery stocked until the next generation. But I was a little surprised. And angry. And frustrated. Spankingly so, in fact. So, she got a swat, and I took away the crayons she had found. So, she apologized and promised never to do it again. So, imagine my surprise when I caught her in the act of coloring on yet another wall. When she saw that she had been caught, she said, "Mom, I just want a spank." Okay. To each his (or her) own. So, I obliged and then sent her to her room....where she found some more crayons. Grrrr! Time for the big guns: No trick-or-treating unless she has scrubbed all of the crayon off from the walls, and if she draws on the walls again I get her candy. She apologized and promised never to do it again. I let her use one crayon to color a picture a little later, and I asked her if she was going to draw on the walls again. She shrugged. *sigh* I asked, "Katherine, did you like getting spanked?" She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then replied, "Yeah...I kinda did." Huh. Who knew?

I'm Back!

Yippee skippy! Right after I got my blog all set up, our computer decided to start having problems and I couldn't log in to do anything. Ugh! So frustrating! Anyway, after several different troubleshooting sessions, a couple of different malware scans and removals, and a couple of discussions with tech support, I finally have things up and running again. Yay me! So, I will try to get some real posts done in the near future. :)