Josha-Squasha

Okay, my name is Dara and I am a bad parent.

I know we have established this, but I wanted to make sure you all know that I know this before you read the following post.

I tie Joshua to his bed at night. I found it necessary since Jeremy found him riding his bike in the garage at 4 AM, and I found him a few nights later in his room with a parade of sandwiches on his windowsill and Pepper in his bed. To his credit, he did clean up the mess he made when he made the sandwiches. It could have been tidiness, or it could have been (and probably was) an attempt to conceal evidence.

Anyway...last night Jeremy and I were feeling pretty bad about the whole thing (especially since we had put a gate up in Eva's doorway to stop her from roaming), and Jeremy turned to me and said, "We gotta figure something else out." I agreed, especially since what was easiest for us a parents wasn't necessarily the best for our kids and their psychological well-being.

So, I untied the ribbon around Josh's foot, and crossed my fingers that he wouldn't wake up and decide he needed to go on a 10-mile run around the neighborhood.

This morning, I was helping Eva (who also was liberated last night from her baby gated doorway) get dressed and the noise woke up her neighbor. Joshua walked in, cow-eyed and bed-headed.

"MOM!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't tied up and I stayed in bed last night!"

I laughed a little.

"That's 'cause I untied you while you were asleep."

He processed this for a minute.

"Nooooo," he said. "It was magic!"

Ha ha ha!