Being Naughty

Since Red Dog's return to our family a couple weeks ago (see post here: Ramblings of a Working Mom: Finding an old friend ), I have consistently returned home from work to reports of Red Dog acting naughty. Apparently, (according to Grace) Red Dog just does not want to be nice -- he likes being naughty.

For example, before I left home to go to work yesterday, I was discussing the issue with Grace. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So was Red Dog naughty or nice yesterday?

Grace: Ummm . . . naughty!

Me: What did Red Dog do that was naughty?

Grace: Well . . . he hit Jacob on the head . . .

Me: . . . yeah . . . what else?

Grace: He took some shells . . . .

Dad (interrupting): I found sea shells in Grace's pockets from preschool. She told me that she found them in the parking lot.

Me: Grace, did you take sea shells from your preschool?

Grace (emphatically!): No! Red Dog did it!

Jacob (interrupting): Well, actually (he uses this word often now - always correcting our facts) GRACE and Red Dog took the sea shells from school!

Grace (negatively): Uh-uh! It was Red Dog

I went on to discuss with Grace that she was in charge of Red Dog, and, if Red Dog cannot behave, she would get in trouble. I further offered that, if Red Dog continued to be naughty, he may just need to be put in a cage all day until he learns to stay out of trouble. At this suggestion, Grace became excited: "A cage?!?" -- and spent the next 10 minutes following me around talking about needing to find a cage for Red Dog, and how he needs to be in a cage . . .

oy vey!