Jeff got put in timeout tonight.One minute for every year he is old. Thirty-three minutes is a very long time when a four-year-old is in charge of the timeout.
Yes, it was Pearl who put Jeff in timeout. Not me. Although I did encourage an appropriate punishment for Jeff's "bad decision."
It started when I was putting Cole to bed. Jeff came in laughing - and Pearl screaming in hysteria - and proceeded to tell me he had broken not only her plastic baseball bat, but killed her giant, rubber ducky. Granted the baseball bat incident wasn't entirely his fault. They were playing outside and Jeff whacked the ball nearly into the neighbor's yard, with such force that it broke a small piece of the bat. Cheap plastic. Pearl was pretty upset until we promised to buy her a new, better (and probably pink) baseball bat.
But the duck... he did that on purpose. Not the actual breaking, he wasn't trying to break it, but the hitting of it, yes. I still don't get why he went after an innocent rubber ducky with a PVC pipe anyway... he claims it was a game of judo-chop gone awry and in self-defense. Or why Pearl was so traumatized... she never played with that thing and left him outside year-round to brave the elements for at least two years.Pearl was so upset that we went outside together to look at the carnage. Jeff wasn't kidding about killing that poor duck. As Pearl told me several times, with big alligator tears streaming down her face, "he broke his wing!"
There was no consoling her so I just kept taking pictures, trying to hold in the giggles. She finally calmed down when I agreed to tell Santa that she wanted a new rubber ducky for Christmas. Then we went inside to check on Jeff, who remember, had been sent to timeout.
Jeff was a good sport. He stayed in timeout, giggling, but still there. Only he had moved from standing and looking at the wall (laughing), to laying on the floor with his feet up on the wall (laughing). Hmmm.... reminds me of someone else in this house. Then he proceeded to throw a tantrum, shouting such things like, "I don't want to be in timeout! I'm sorry! No timeout! I have to go potty! Mom! " and stomping his feet on the floor. Pearl went into her room, slammed the door shut, and proceeded to yell at her dad to "be quiet!" It was hilarious! I was laughing hysterically while poor Cole was trying to nurse and fall asleep.
And while we'll probably have to pay for therapy someday for Pearl witnessing the death of her ducky, I think Jeff also got through to her on how ridiculous she can be with her tantrums. At any rate, we're still laughing about it!