sugar, SPICE, and everything nice (extra SPICE)

In the twenty minutes this morning between Lydia arising from bed and us walking out the door, she had to have two separate timeouts in order to get her act together. There was the offense of Repeated Refusal to Wear Fresh Pull-Up and the offense of Repeated Refusal to Put On Socks and Shoes. Thankfully, Sam was willing to wait patiently while the punishments were carried out.

'Timeout,'by the bye, is an ingenious little thing. We have set a small floor rug by the couch and have christened it the Timeout Mat. If she needs a timeout -- and this is rare indeed; we've only used it four times so far -- we set her down on the mat for a few minutes. She screams and hollers but does not budge from the mat. It will be a sad day that comes once she realizes the power of the Timeout Mat is not as strong as she thinks.

Her behavior apparently continued during school today. I had a note on her paper this afternoon that read, "Lydia forgot her walking feet and inside voice at home this morning." Whoops, with all the timeouts, I forgot to stick those in her bag!