Late afternoon Maree was playing and singing throughout the house. It was so fun to listen to her. However, in the process of her play she began to chew on a toy that would be ruined by chewing. Angel asked her to keep the toy out of her mouth but she would not. Angel took the toy from her. About then Gabe came down stairs.
Within a few minutes he was taking toys from Maree and putting them up out of her reach. She, of course, was pitching quite a fit. I reminded Gabe that it is not his place to take toys from Maree. I told him to give them back. Once Gabe offered her the toys back she quit yelling 'mine' and started yelling 'no' and refused to take them.
Then she rushed at him and began to crawl around him hanging on his ankle and growling like a wild animal. I thought this kind of funny, but Gabe was not amused. "Get her off!" he yelled. I told Maree that Gabe didn't want to play right now. She ran to the other side of the room. For a minute or two there was peace.
I decided to check the laundry only to find that the old washing machine had broken down again. I went to get Dirk. Gabe followed him to the laundry room to help. Maree followed too. "Get away," Gabe demanded. "Somebody get her." Angel went to get Maree. Maree was mad. She wanted to 'help' too.
Angel was trying to cook supper while I was trying to knit several doll sweaters this evening. However, soon she was calling me because the food just didn't seem to be cooking. A fuse had blown making the heating elements in the stove stop working. Dirk had the washing machine torn apart and the stove was going to have to take a number and get in line.
While I helped Angel move the food from the electric stove in the kitchen to the wood burner in the living room, Maree ran back to the laundry room. "She's got the clippies," Gabe yelled. Maree had buried a huge hand full of clothes clips in the couch. Angel helped Maree get all of the clips and they headed back to the laundry room to put them back in the bucket. When they got there Gabe smacked Maree and began to scold her. This is a HUGE No No! Gabe is not to hit Maree ever!
Angel told me about it and I immediately went to get Gabe. "You do not hit Maree, ever," I said to him.
"But she had the clippies," he said.
"You do not punish Maree, ever," I said. "Her mother was correcting her appropriately. We just talked about this a little bit ago when you were taking her toys. Gabe is not to punish Maree. You will need to go face the wall for hitting." Gabe was mad. He cannot understand how we cannot see that he was only helping. No matter how many times I have told him 'breaking the rules is NEVER helping' he just doesn't get it. How can we not see that he is just as grown up as we are? Grown ups know how to follow the rules.
We do not spank Maree, but use other corrective actions like taking all of the clips back, sitting on a chair or removing certain toys if needed. Gabe has been spanked in his past and would spank Maree frequently if given half a chance. We have a zero tolerance for this!
Now that Gabe was facing the wall at his assigned spot in the kitchen, Maree would have to stay in the living room. She likes to go pester Gabe when he is in trouble. This is not allowed either. Because Angel was now cooking dinner in the living room, it seemed that having Maree stay there would not be a problem. However, Angel needed to go to the kitchen for something and Maree started to follow her. "Stay here," Angel said. Maree paused on the two steps near the doorway. Then she lost her balance and fell with a thud, raising two huge lumps on her head. I grabbed ice while Angel scooped up Maree. Needless to say, Maree very fussy the rest of the evening.
Angel took Maree up to bed. A few minutes later I heard a crash and Maree was crying again. Oh no, what now? Just that fast Angel came rushing downstairs with Maree. She was jumping on the bed and fell nose first into the crib rail. The nose was not bleeding, nor did it bruise bad. "When you take her back up, make sure she lays down." I said.
A few minutes after they went back up, Gabe was fooling around in his room and knocked something over. Thud crash, I heard from upstairs. No one was hurt, nothing was broken. Please, just go to bed. My nerves are shot.
