Perfecto!

Anthony stumbled in to my room this morning after a quick potty break and flopped himself on my bed.

"And how are you this morning?" I asked him. (I was laying there wide awake trying not to move, trying to avoid the nausea that was sneaking back up on me...)

A nice long sigh escaped him before he answered.
"Actually....Perfecto!" And he did the little professor swiping of the finger in the air for punctuation.

He continued...."You know...Annie is still sleeping. In her own bed. You could spank her if you want to 'cause she's laying still. It's a good time."

Just speechless. Honestly I don't spank a lot. I don't like spanking. I'm almost anti-spanking. But not the point of calling Social Services on someone. I think sometimes a smack on the bottom is necessary. Like...if they happen to be climbing the walls using curtains as their leverage. (We don't know anything about that around here, do we my sweets?)

I tried so hard not to laugh. Mostly I just threaten. Actually I ask, "Do you need a spankin'?" You'd be surprised...I've actually gotten a "yes" answer to that question a couple times. It's hard to smack a bottom once they admit they need it!

Anyway, sometimes I think Anthony is a bit sneaky. He sees opportunities to get back at her for her sassy behavior towards him. Sometimes he takes a chance and does something mean! It's rare, but it happens. I think a lot of it is that he gets hurt when she is mean to him, and he can't understand why she's being mean when he's trying to comfort her or distract her from something. Lately, he's stood by and watched as she did something he knew was wrong, but he never said anything. So he's been sharing in some punishments. For example, they are not allowed to eat anywhere in the house other than the kitchen. He knows the rule well. Some special items will be taken away permanently if it happens. She knows the rule too, but she's three! She needs lots of reminding about everything. I mean, she still needs to be told to wipe after going potty for goodness sake. So we've been trying to get him to remind her of rules if he sees her doing something wrong, or if he knows she's going to get in trouble for something. She just tends to walk all over him, and he tends to take it. So when she brought food in the bedroom and then broke the curtain by climbing up on Anthony's bunk bed, and then tore off all his blankets and sheets....well he got in trouble, too, for not saying something. He just stood there watching her!

Poor little guy just stands there in disbelief. You literally have to snap him out of him out of it.

Needless to say, they were in bed early. Lots of tears were had.

I think his suggestion of a spanking this morning was about last nights early bedtime. I don't know if that could be called holding a grudge...I think he's just sneaky.