Thursday, July 19, 2007

the joys of motherhood

See this face? Looks quite innocent doesn't it? Almost as if he could do no wrong. And if you could hear the sweet voice that goes with it, you'd be even more convinced of his angelic nature. Well, let me tell you, things aren't always as they seem. Not that he's a bad boy. He isn't. But let me tell you what happened this week.

The kids were playing outside in their bathing suits because they had played in the sprinklers. No big deal. Well, Grace comes in and says, "Isaac pulled his bathing suit down!"

I'm thinking, "Oh dear! Please bless that Grace was the only witness to this!"

I go outside to look for Isaac and can't find him in the quad. I look on the other side of the building (where the kids aren't supposed to play) and finally find him, hiding near the bushes.

"Isaac, did you pull your bathing suit down?"

Guilty look with pouty face and looking down he says, "Yes."

"Did anyone else see besides Grace?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Ok. Well come inside and change your clothes. No more playing outside."

We came inside and I told him that it was not appropriate to take off his clothes while outside, and he got changed.

Fast forward ten minutes. There is a little tap on the door and thinking it is Grace being silly I say, "Just open the door! It's unlocked." But it's not Grace, it's Olivia with her friend Sadie and Sadie's mom.

"I just wanted to tell you that I was looking for my daughter, Sophie [Sadie's younger sister, approximately age 5] and found her with Isaac in the stairwell. They both had their pants down. I don't think anything happened, but I wanted you to know."

Sigh!

I thank her for telling me and assure her we will be having a talk with Isaac.

At this point, I turn to Isaac and demand to know why he lied about someone else being with him while his pants were down.

He says, "No one was there the second time!"

The second time! "Well, it doesn't matter, you lied. And it is very much NOT ok to take off your clothes outside and show people!"

I called Jared and he was about home anyway. He had a talk with Isaac about modesty and decency and such. And told him he couldn't play outside the whole next day.

Now I know a lot of kids do this at some point, but what's my luck that it happens when he's with me! And it's not the first instance of childhood indiscretion during which I've been the misfortunate parent. A couple weeks ago, I took the kids with me to pick up some ice cream from the BYU Creamery. It was a busy Monday night and there were a lot of people in there, and of course the kids were asking for a million things to which the answer was no.

We bought the ice cream and went out to the car. As I am buckling Grace, I look back at Olivia and she has a SUPER guilty look on her face and quickly puts her hand on her pocket.

"Olivia, did you take something?"

Silence.

"Olivia..."

"Yeah, but Isaac did too!" She pulled out a little flashlight keychain.

I inform them that stealing is against the law and people go to jail for it, and that it's against God's law and very wrong, and we go back in the store to return the flashlights and find someone for the kids to confess to. But it's really busy and there are no employees that don't also have approximately 15 people waiting in line. We wander around the store hoping to find a random someone who works there, but nada! So, we put the flashlights back and I give the kids a lecture about how you need to confess when you do something wrong and that we'll be back. And I leave the store feeling like a bad mom for not waiting in the 15 person line so that they could properly confess but also relieved that I didn't.

As you can see, I've had quite the introduction to motherhood this summer. Not to mention all the scrapes and arguments and hitting (as in the kids hitting each other) and whining and messes and all those other fun things that kids do and we who profess to be grown ups must deal with and find lessons in. What joy this is!

They sure are cute though, huh?

1 comment:

  1. Oh Katrina...I am giggling a little as I read this. Whew for you. I just have to say...even though I cannot imagine going through all this stuff with your kiddos,try not to worry too much about it. I remember when I was five I similarly disrobed with my friend Jon, and I'm pretty sure we had no idea it was bad. Anyway...no big deal. Fast forward 14 years, after we had long moved away, and wouldn't you know we are both Freshman at BYU together. It was pretty funny running into him. So, just think, in 14 years you will probably be laughing about this plus it will provide for endless opportunities to embarrass the kid!

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