Temporarily Me

Yesterday Julia and I had an intense little argument. It was rough. I was watching the kiddos while Amanda went to a doctor appointment and John was at school. We had come in from outside because Bryce was getting tired and it was his nap time. So it was quiet time. Julia doesn't have to take a nap but she knows that it's time for things to settle down for a bit so her brother can go to sleep. We put on some Barbie princess movie for her. She loves, adores, can't live without her Barbie princess movies. Anyways, to keep the volume down low and still be able to watch with her I turned on the subtitles. When you have a hearing impaired aunt, you get used to subtitles and captioning. So this wasn't the first time she had seen them and when you watch a movie with Julia you need to WATCH the movie with her. Because girlfriend likes to ask you questions, so you better be paying attention. Things like, "What was the name of that horse? Do you like how Barbie did that? That man is bad, right, aunt Kim?". So if you are not paying attention she knows it.

Anyway, so once I turned on the subtitles it was if I was ruining her favorite movie:

J: Aunt Kim, don't turn on the words.

K: Julia, I have to have the words on the screen so I can watch the movie.

J (voice rising): Aunt KIM, turn OFF the words on the screen. I DON'T WANT you reading them.

K: Julia, if you want to watch the movie we will have the words on the screen. You can go play in the playroom instead if you don't want to watch the movie.

J: NO! Mommy doesn't like the words on the screen and I WANT THEM OFF!

K: Julia, you will not yell at me. Either we will watch the movie with the words on the screen or we will do something else. Those are the two choices.

J: I DON'T WANT THE WORDS ON THE SCREEN! I DON'T LIKE THEM. I DON'T LIKE YOU, I WISH I DIDN'T HAVE AN AUNT KIM. NO ONE WANTS AN AUNT KIM! GO AWAY, YOU STUPID HEAD!! (hits her Aunt Kim with her pink Gap hat)

K: Julia, go to timeout right now!

J: NO, I DON'T WANT TO GO TO TIMEOUT! (crying now commencing)

K: Julia, go to timeout. You do not talk to me that way. Time out now.

J: NO AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!

K: Julia, you will go to timeout right now or I will put you in timeout.

J: NO!

K: OK, then I will put you there. (Lifts up Julia who is dead weight completely, puts her in time out)

J: I DON'T WANT TIME OUT, I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE MY AUNT, I DON'T LIKE YOU, GO AWAY!!!

K: Until you can calm down, stop yelling and talk about this you will stay in timeout.

J: I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN TIMEOUT!

At which point Bryce decides he needs to go cheer Julia up because she is crying on the floor. So he goes and squats next to her and starts smiling at her and talking in his language to her. Julia rather enjoys this attention and stops sobbing to smile back at him and start laughing. Which Bryce takes as encouragement and begins laughing too. He then thought it would be OK to sit on Julia and play with her.

K: Bryce, Julia is in timeout. (goes and gets Bryce off of Julia and brings him to couch) Julia, are you ready to talk about what happened and why you are in time out?

J: NO, I am not.

K: OK, then you 4 minutes in timeout and then we will talk about it. (after 4 minutes, in which time Julia has calmed the heck down and is now sitting quietly waiting) OK, you can come talk to me now. (Julia comes over to me) Do you know why you were in timeout?

J: Yes, I didn't want the words and you did and I yelled at you and called you a name and hit you.

K: Yes, exactly. That was wrong. You don't call people names and you do not hit people. You owe me an apology.

J: I'm sorry, can I watch my movie now and I will even watch it with the words.

K: Yes, you may. Do you need a drink?

The rest of the afternoon was great. Bryce had his nap, Julia watched her movie, Amanda got home from her Dr. appointment and eventually we all wen to the carnival. But, man, four year olds. Wow.