Ups and Downs

I seem to have the mistaken notion that if the kids have a good evening they will have a good day the next day. NOT! On Monday evening, I took them to buy a waterslide. I had promised them one when I got my tax refund and kept waiting for the durn things to go on sale in mid to late August like they usually do. I never could find one on sale so I used a 20% Toys 'r Us discount coupon and bought a nice one. The kids were thrilled and begged me to let them try it out on Monday night. So, even though it was getting dark by the time we finished dinner, I told them they could slide for about 20 minutes. It was so neat to see them so happy and enjoying something so simple....and I'm thinking life is good, the kids are happy, this is a good substitute for a vacation, etc. About 10 minutes into their happy play, we see lightening and Charlie tells everyone to stop playing in the water (he's learning!). So, they willingly get out and as we were going into the house they asked if I would pick them up from daycare early on Tuesday so that they would have more time to play on the water slide. I tell them I would try... and then they are so amazingly good for the remainder of the evening and go to bed without any difficulty. Sweet little children they are, I'm thinking. I should've known something was lurking...

I arrived at the daycare Tuesday evening to pick them up, not early since it was overcast and a little too cool to play on the waterslide. One of their teachers asks to speak to me and shoos my kids away while she talks to me (bad omen). It turns out that Charlie spent most of the afternoon hitting people without provocation ... just walking up to them and hitting them. The teacher confronted him about it and he lied saying the children had hit him first which she knew wasn't true because she witnessed everything. So, he spent some time by himself but everytime she would allow him to rejoin the group he was hitting again. Marcie also hit a child in the 4 year old classroom (Marcie has the remainder of this week with that group). She walked up to the child and socked her hard in the deltoid area leaving a bruise. This is a new child to the daycare and I've noticed that she seems to go to Marcie for answers to questions (like the names of other children or teachers). Evidently, though, she was not even playing with Marcie when Marcie went over to her and hit her. Marcie also at some point started screaming for the teacher to call me to come and pick them up and was sassy and disrespectful with several of the teachers. So, the teacher that Marcie is most attached to (who is also a friend of ours) put her in time out and when Marcie still didn't behave, she made Marcie write sentences. (I can't wait to see those!) I also found out that Kyle wet his pants in the morning (he is usually dry until late afternoon) and he was disruptive at nap time.

I can't figure it out...they got what they wanted Monday night and they are thrilled with it, behave really well.... and the devil comes out on Tuesday. I told them maybe we should take the waterslide back and Marcie says we can't because we took it out of the box (smart aleck!)...so, I said we could give it to someone like maybe one of the children they were hitting. And to beat it all, I can't even really deny them playing time on it in the immediate future because it will be raining in the evenings the rest of the week. By the time I can use not playing on it as a punishment, it will be too far after the fact. I hope the little monsters get it together today. I hate the "I need to talk to you" message when I arrive at the daycare!