Reed's Time Out

I don't know how many times I have tried to explain to Reed that kids learn by playing and by watching.  Max has learned several undesirable words from Reed and at least one from me, and I'm not talking just about curse words, just other words that I don't like to hear, such as, fat, stupid, dumb...and yeah, a few curse words that seems to be his favorite words to say in a crowd, sh*t-fire and h*ll are the big crowd pleasers.

Recently, I have had to put a lock down on Reed's tv privileges.  No more family guy, violent movies like die hard, or grey's anatomy for me (all the blood and guts tend to make Max anxious).  Even if the boys are playing and you think they are not paying any attention they some how seem to pick up something bad.  So we always just have to wait till the boys go to bed to watch a tv show we want to watch.  I used to always be so frustrated with people that had kids when they were not caught up on current events, new movies coming out, trends, new tv shows, new music, etc, and now I realize why they are so out of the loop!  I used to think these people must be living in the stone age or not managing their time well to not even have time to watch a little news!  Now I realize exactly why parents of toddlers are completely unaware of what is going on in the outside world (especially housewives!).  These little toddlers are like super absorbent sponges that soak everything up...the good and the bad!

However, sometimes all this observed behavior can lead to some funny things.  We have a very strict no water guns in the house policy.  Failure to follow this rule means serving time...3 torturous minutes for Max and 2 -ish minutes for Jerry.  One day last week, Reed and I were doing the dishes after supper and he very slyly reaches over and grabs something and walks away (at the time I was not paying any attention so had no idea what it was) the next thing I know the whole back of my hair and shirt is getting soaked with water!  I turn around, ready to send a guilty toddler to time out, and see my husband holding Max's biggest water gun with full intentions to completely empty all it's contents on my face.  With no water gun in sight for a means of retaliation, I just take off running though the house because at this point I am dripping water running through the house... I am so soaked.  The next thing I know Max is standing in the doorway screaming "wait stop!"  Of course we stop because he rarely speaks with this much force and determination and he looks so darn cute.  Max then grabs Reed's hand and takes Reed to time out and says, "sit in the chair.  3 minutes daddy, ok-alright!"  Then he walks over to the oven and tries to set the timer like I always do and crosses his arms looking at Reed waiting for the punishment to be over.  It took everything I had to not die laughing at the whole situation.  Clearly he observes everything from what is punishable to my body language during time outs!  Obviously, the timer is not going to go off because he doesn't know how to set it, so when Max thinks it has been the appropriate amount of time he walks over and informs Reed that he can now get up and play.  It was the cutest thing I have ever seen and I was so proud that my husband was willing to play along and accept his punishment.  I know I am biased, but I think I have the most intelligent 3 year old ever :)

Reed serving time :)