In the mind of a little boy

Justis and Dawson have both said some hilarious things in the last two days. I had to sit and type this out before I forget!

Last night, Justis and the rest of his siblings were doing the nightly before-bed tidy up. Justis was supposed to have finished all of his responsibilities before proceeding to anything else. I walked over two pairs of his dirty underwear as I was on my way to put away clean clothes in Madalynn's room.

I said, "Justis, there are two pairs of underwear I just stepped over. You are getting spanked because you didn't do it the first time I asked and before playing." He happened to already be playing in the living room and had totally forgotten the underwear.

He snapped back, "Well, MOM, I didn't see them there!"

I replied, "Justis, I told you to take care of ALL of your things. Now do it and quit being a smart alec."

Justis snapped back, "Well, I didn't see them there, and my name's not Alec!"

He got his butt popped for smarting off, but I was laughing inside. He has a friend from preschool named Alec. He thought I had gone looney by calling him by the wrong name!

Tonight in the car, Justis and Madalynn were getting loud and sarcastic with one another in the back seat. Madalynn was frustrated because Justis was yelling at her to get her leg on HER side of the seat, and Justis was getting onto her for yelling at him. Before too long...

"Moooooom. Justis is mad because I am yelling at him, but I asked him in a nice voice once and he wouldn't stop, so I had to yell at him and now he's mad because I'm yelling at him." Did you catch all of that? If you didn't, that's okay. It's as hard for me to understand what she's saying in person.

I said, "Madalynn, the way you respond is your choice. You may talk in a normal voice to him, even if he chooses to yell at you. No matter how much he yells at you, you don't have to yell back. Don't let him get your goat."

Madalynn replied, "Okay."

Dawson listened to the advice I gave Maddie and has just learned to speak in sentences. Most of his sentences are still pretty mushy, but from the middle seat, just as plain as day, Dawson said, "Goat! What goat, mom!?

Apparently Dawson was interested in seeing the goat that she wasn't going to let Justis get. :)