Strange Things Yelled Out The Door Lately...

"Judah, get your horse out of the kitchen!" Referring to the stick-pony he'd been playing Cowboy with earlier that day, which for unknown reasons had been abandoned in the kitchen, it's reins tangled on the pantry door knobs.

"Don't torment the dog!" For so long, Judah was a little short-stuff, and our dog (though zealously protective of him) was not afraid to push him around a bit if so inclined. Now, with the clunky cast on his arm, Judah has learned that the dog moves out of the way real quick if he lifts up that arm.

"No jumping off the fence!" We have a giant roll of chain-link awaiting a project in our back yard, and though the doctor has forbidden athletic physical activity or horseplay, these sorts of things prove irresistible to him. I have also had to yell similar things about the picnic table and the swing at various times in recent weeks, as well as not sliding down our long wood-floored hallway and under the coffee table as though sliding into base in Little League.

"Don't shoot at the dog!" It sounds horrible, of course, but what I'm referring to is the boys' preference for unloading an entire clip of Nerf dart ammo at a moving target.

Poor, long-suffering Raisin usually has to employ zig-zag maneuvers to get away from the annoyance, and usually heads for the back door where she cowers knowing she has a better chance of my noticing and intervening there.

"What are you doing playing outside at 10 PM?" This is in reference to Judah's rather alarming new habit of slipping out of the house even when he's been told to get ready for bed.

Apparently, with the cast on and doctor mandated restrictions, he hasn't burned off enough steam by bedtime and just wants to run.

The fact that it's pitch black outside doesn't seem to phase him in the least.

It never has.

Which totally freaks.me.out.

And this gem, just in tonight...

"WHAT IN THE WORLD are you doing outside in your underwear, in the dark??"

I was straightening up the kitchen when I heard what I thought was the front door closing. Jeff was already long since asleep, having to get up really early to set up for a Cross Country meet at his school in the morning.

I marched over to the door (left ajar), and was stunned to see both boys coming in from dad's car...in their hot-weather, summertime p.j.s (aka underwear/boxers).

After they'd both long since been ordered to bed, mind you.

Apparently, big brother needed something out of his backpack which was left in the car, and though he can stare down a bully any day of the week, he isn't quite so brave as his younger brother when it comes to going outside after dark and had no problem whatsoever persuading his little brother to disobey.

Sooooo, in punishment for this, I did the only surefire thing I could think of...

"That's it! I'm putting this on the blog!" and ran for my camera.

Lucky for them, they both skedaddled quick as could be to their respective rooms and dove into their beds before it came to all that.

A device I plan to utilize more often to get those boys to obey...