24 June 2009

Well, Then.

So, apparently, being quiet isn't the only indication that the boys are up to something they shouldn't be. Before I get into the story at hand, let me back up a little bit.


One night last week, Josh went into the boys' room to check on them and tell them to settle down. As he went to tuck Deacon in he saw little pieces of foam, like from a stuffed animal, all over Deacon's bed. He turned on the light, I entered and together we cleaned up the mess, but could not, for the life of us, figure out where it had all come from. None of their stuffed animals were missing, or super skinny, or anything. Very perplexing.


Now, Sunday night, I was in the kitchen making a little snack, and I was listening to the boys playing and thought, "It's almost 9:00. I should really go in there and tell them to go to sleep, but they almost sound like they're winding down themselves, so maybe I shouldn't." For whatever reason, I decided to go in anway. Sigh. We now know where the foam came from.


Apparently, Zeke thought it would be a good idea to flip over his mattress (there's a crack or two on the bottom, which is really the top, but became the bottom when we thought the cracks were bothering him while he was trying to sleep) and pull out the foam padding inside of it. Then, because why should he have all the fun, he would give the pieces of foam to Deacon, who would then rip them into little pieces. Oh yeah. There was foam and little pieces of plastic all over their room.


After bare-bottom spankings, and much stern-talkings, we clean up and put them back in bed. I do not have pictures of the mess because I did not want to encourage a repeat performance. They hadn't done that much damage, so we just put his bed back together as was, and that was all for the night.


So Monday night, we put them in bed, not thinking anything of it, and went about our evening. After awhile they were getting a bit rowdy so I went in to tell them to quiet down, only to find the room exactly as it was the night before. The mattress propped up against the wall, foam and plastic everywhere. It's a good thing Zeke likes to sleep on the floor, because that's exactly where he slept as I took the mattress out of the room after this since now it looks like this:


Now, this picture doesn't really show the extent of the damage since Zeke apparently had to reach behind/under/whatever that purple layer to get to the foam, and he managed to leave the purple layer intact. Yeah. So the boys and I went to Wal-mart yesterday and got Zeke a new mattress. I knew he'd been needing one anyway because of the cracks, but I had no idea he'd ever do something like this.

As if two nights in a row of discipline wasn't enough, Zeke decided last night, to flip up his new mattress, I guess, to see if he could have a go at it like he had at the last mattress. I have to admit, it was somewhat funny being in the living room and hearing Josh yell, "Have you done lost your mind?!" Oh, those Walter boys.

5 comments:

Embrace the Circus said...

Honestly, we should live nearer to one another, because your boys make me feel less insane -- or make me feel like my girls aren't so insane. Or something. (Maybe if I were sane I could make that make sense.) I thought we were the only people who disciplined with no discernible change in behavior...

Anonymous said...

Testing

Anonymous said...

testing

Anonymous said...

Okay, obviously I am just getting used to using this thing. Sorry for the two "testings". Beth, you have the best blog! I love reading about you, Josh and the boys. What can I say, even the twins never thought about flipping over their mattress. Have you tried positive reinforcement for this? Like you get a reward or stickers or points for a good night.(I used to use charts and write the expected behaviors and then they got pennies for each one achieved and then we would add up the points(pennies each night) and they would deposit them into their little banks. At the end of the week we would count the pennies and 100 pennies would turn into a dollar in their bank. This was a good way to introduce counting and money and really did produce alot of positive behaviors. I even had simple ones listed like "I woke up smiling today and said good morning to mommy." Anyway, just a thought. I had to really be creative when it came to dealing with the twins. Aunt Lorrie

Anonymous said...

I want to laugh but I'm too afraid that this is what I'm in for in a few years and I will be the one yelling about lost minds. On the other hand, I'm sure Mom is delighted that her Mother's Curse is working out so well.

xo
Lin