How am I supposed to discipline a face like that without laughing my ass off? Tell me, how?
I always "get down on his level and look into his eyes", like Supernanny or Nanny911 or Shalom in the Home or whoever, says to do. I am firm and serious and when I ask him what he's doing (always while it is really clear what he is doing and that what he is doing is wrong) he says, "Um....nuthin" and makes "the face". It's even more bizarre in person because he rolls his eyes back and forth and it becomes a sort of stare down that I lose 9 times out of 10 by laughing uncontrollably.
So at this point, many of my attempts to discipline him become a contest to see who will laugh first, because he knows that I'm going to laugh and his ridiculousness amuses him to no end. This has been going on for over 6 months now.
I just happened to catch it on film (or SD card, nowadays I guess) while we were taking photos for a M is for Monkeys page in an alphabet book my group of friends are going to do for our kids. That's the little kid's crib bedding, my friend made me the quilt and I love it. Mr. Ashley's aunt made the Big Kid the sweater. We have a fondness for sock monkeys and really monkeys of all kinds around here. Mr. Ashley says we will never, ever have a monkey for a pet and I think there is an excellent chance he is wrong.
Speaking of Mr. Ashley and lying, he has been telling the Big Kid that he can't watch movies in his room at bedtime (I know, we're bad parents, blahblahblah) because he didn't eat his vegetables and his muscles aren't big enough to make the dvd player start, when in reality the dvd player is dying a slow death and it is a total crapshoot as to whether or not it will work at any given time. The Big Kid totally accepts this with a little disappointment and an eagerness to eat a ton of vegetables the next day. I'm sure this is really wrong to do for some reason, but it is working out for the moment.
