Let me preface this story by saying that I don’t like to make my children upset.  It’s just that sometimes their reactions to certain situations just makes me, well, laugh.  There, I said it, sometimes when my kids play the drama card with tears and all, I laugh.  I am mean.

Scene:  After taking the ill-advised route of turning Anya’s little prison (aka crib) into a toddler bed, she has had difficulty staying in it at night.  She say’s she has to go potty about 10 times and does her manic hand washing routine (well, I guess when you suck your thumb you want your hands really, really, really clean).  I wouldn’t mind getting up to pee once, or even twice, but every 5-10 minutes??  Eventually mommy’s patience is at it’s limit.

Mommy:  Anya, if you get out of bed one more time, I’m taking your taggie pillow.

About two minutes pass and the little urchin is stealing out of her room again and starts opening up drawers in the bathroom.  Mommy noisily huffs her way up the stairs.  Anya runs from the bathroom into her bedroom, screaming and crying,

Anya: Noooooooooooooooo *sob* NOOOOOOOOOOOO *SNIFFLE SOB SNIFFLE*

She knew what was going to happen when I came up the stairs, let’s be clear about that.  She understands right from wrong and how her actions were going to cause her to lose her precious taggie pillow.  Oh, the drama!  Oh, the tears!

I stood outside her bedroom for a few moments trying to control the laughter.  Because, you know, she would think me a heartless wench if I took her pillow and was laughing about it.

In the end, I gave her one more warning that the pillow was gone if she moved from the bed again since it was time to sleep (at 9:30…don’t you think, so?).  She stayed in her bed the rest of the night.