No Admittance

This morning, as I was checking email, reading my e-news, and drinking my coffee, I heard several ominous thumps coming from Kathryn's room. I went to investigate and found Julian jumping off the bed. Probably not a terrible thing, but Kathryn's bed is a slat bed, and the darn things fall out every time they jump off, so....

I said (before full daily coffee ration, mind you), "No more jumping on or off the bed."

To which they replied, "We weren't jumping!" HA!

Being quick on my feet, I replied, "Fine. Don't start jumping, and you need to leave this door open."

BIG MISTAKE on my part, and lesson learned, for sure.

Several minutes later, after some ominous quiet, and then hushed talking, I again went to investigate.

It seems Kathryn had been sent to the hospital. She had severe "allergies" and was on bed rest.

Because of this, and because of my previous edict to leave the door open, Julian had begun construction of a wall to give Kathryn privacy in the hospital.

Said wall was being constructed using all of their soft things - blankets, pillows, dress up clothes, stuffed animals and even babies (the wall actually grew by a couple of feet after this was taken).

Ok, so not a big deal. They are creative and imaginitive, and I love it. I don't mind them making messes, unless I am the one that has to do most of the clean up - they are getting way too big for Mommy to do their chores - and today I don't feel good. So I made Julian look me in the eyes and told him he could only build a wall if he promised to clean it up when we did lunch time clean up (you must remember, Kathryn was tragically ill with allergies in the hospital).

I'm sure you can see how this is going to end. When clean up time came, of course Julian's promise was forgotten. After an hour of "clean up" (which was actually them playing with the various compents of the wall and Julian teasing Kathryn so she would cry), and postponing lunch as long as I could (Kathryn gets very grumpy when she's sleepy and hungry), I told them clean up was over. Now Mommy would do it, and they would each have quiet time this afternoon to make up for not doing what they said they would. (I know, harsh). This picture is the room after their hour of clean up, before I started.

Not bad, I guess. But I'll definitely be much clearer in the future on the conditions under which walls may be built in the house!