Naughtiness, Lee style

Allie got many new things for her birthday, including a diary that opens with a spoken password. It's not too discriminating. I don't think I'm giving away too much if I say that Allie's magic word is "flower." You can get the book to open, though, by saying "flicker," "flores," "fleur," and a lot of other "f" words. So it's actually open almost all of the time. It has a spoken greeting and farewell, and Allie says "It speaks British!" because the manufacturer obviously thought little girls would think it more magical if the voice didn't speak with a southern drawl or a midwestern nasal tone.

Tonight, Allie was at the kitchen table doing one of her new art projects and Julia grabbed the open diary and started to look at it. Of course, Allie couldn't have that, so she came over, grabbed it away, and closed the book. Julia immediately protested and I told Julia that it was Allie's book, so she had to give it up.

This did not go over well with Julia, of course, and before I could tell Allie that it would be nice if she would share, Julia threw a gift bag at her in a fit of pique. I told Julia to cut it out and she said, "No!" I said, "Julia!" in a warning voice, and told her she needed to say she was sorry. She said, "No!" again and I got in her face and told her she needed to be nice or she was getting a timeout.

She said, "Hmph!" in a completely unrepentent voice and I told her that was it, she was getting a timeout. We do those (pretty infrequently, actually) on the lowest step of our staircase in the front hall. I put her out there, got in her face again, and told her I wanted her to think about how naughty she was being or she was going to go to bed immediately. She said, "Hmph" again and that was it for Greg.

He came out of the living room, grabbed her, and hauled her up to her room. She spent the next 7 or 8 minutes alone in her room, screaming for us. This is not actually a very bad punishment because, firstly, the light was on. Secondly, after we close the door, she obviously can get off the bed. Next, her room is loaded with toys of every description, as well as various comfort items. Usually, she stops crying almost immediately, but I think she realized that Daddy was really mad.

All was forgotten in about 10 minutes and life returned to normal. Dispute over until, oh, 30 minutes from now.