Officer Isaac

For several months now, Isaac has found much delight whenever I need to reprimand Vivian. It's getting to the point where he will ask me to tell her no. As in, "Mommy, Vivian took her barrette out. Can you say 'don't do that'?" Or if I say, "No hitting, Viv", he'll reply: "Can you say it louder, Mom?"

He's been telling her what to do for awhile now. "No, Viv!", he'll holler, "Don't touch that!" "Don't do that, Viv!" Or my personal favorite: "That make me very frustrated, Vivian!" But lately, it's more than that; now he wants to get her in trouble.

He is always and forever running to me, grabbing my hand, and saying, "Can you come with me, Mommy?" When I follow him, Vivian will be throwing the dirt out of the house plants onto the rug, and he just points and looks up at me in glee, fairly dancing in his anticipation of my reaction. It's kind of disconcerting. I mean, I suppose it makes sense--what a relief, for him, not to always be the bad guy--but should it really make him that happy?

We've been working on this: I've explained that it is not really nice to be a tattle-tale, and I can't tell you how many times a day I say "Okay, sweetie, but let's just have Isaac worry about Isaac. Vivian can worry about Vivian, okay?" But truly, it's a difficult concept to grasp--and to teach. I can't say--"Well, you wouldn't want Vivian to tell on you if you were doing something wrong, would you?"--even though that is basically what I'm trying to teach him. So we talk about treating each other the way you want to be treated, but he SO doesn't get it.

Truth be told, while I don't want him to be a tattle-tale, it does serve a purpose. For example, the other day I was washing dishes while the kids played outside. Isaac started yelling, "Mommy! Mommy! Come look at Vivi! Vivi got so dirty! MOMMY!" At first I just shouted back, "Don't worry about Vivian, Isaac. You just worry about you! It's fine." But eventually I had to go see what all the fuss was about. And, um, she was dirty. Because she had pooped, and leaked out of her diaper, and was wiping the poop all over the place.

There's also the times he says: "Mom! Vivi's climbing again! Come say 'don't do that'! Mommy!" And I know this means she has climbed on top of the hearth and is trying to get onto the sofa from the top of the toy chest. Or: "Vivi's playing in the pee, Mommy!" Or: "She's playing with the fan!"

In that case, I like my little mole, because I can come running before she falls, or drinks a mouthful of day-old pee from Isaac's potty, or gets her fingers chopped off in our $15 Home Depot fan, or whatever other danger she's about to face.

I leave you with the face of our personal family stickler.