Charlotte is ridiculous. She cracks me up and makes me want to tear my hair out in turns. I told Charlotte and Genevieve to clean up their crayon and paper mess off the kitchen table. They sort of complied. I called them back out to finish it and Charlotte emerges from the bathroom, mouth all blue from their Spiderman mouthwash. She smiles at me and says, "Me swallowed it!" (I am working on correcting the improper use of "me.")
I asked for clarification. "You swallowed it? Down into your tummy?"
"No, me spit it out." (that dang improper "me" again)
"Oh, ok. Good. Get in there and clean up the crayons."
"Ok, Mommy!"
I turn around and she's gone again, halfway down the hall. "CHARLOTTE!"
"Oh yeah, I meed to clean the pable!"
If I were prone to using sarcasm with my children this would have been the moment where I said something witty. But on the other hand, when I called her back at least she remembered what she was supposed to be doing without me having to verbally beat it into her little brain.
Before this particular exchange with Charlotte I told the girls that they needed to clean up, concluding the instructions with "I'm your mother, not your maid. Maids get paid to clean up after you. Mothers teach you how to clean up after yourselves. So get to it."
I decided that I really like that line. I don't know if I heard it somewhere else, or if I just made it up. But, I like it all the same.
Their bookshelves look like crap, and they are rapidly re-creating the crayon mess, but at least they followed through with the instruction. Small battles won.
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