Nolan's naughties

Nolan was just as good as gold leading up to Christmas:

...and then a couple of days AFTER Christmas he was naughtier than he has ever been one evening.  I'm wondering if this was pre-meditated behavior.  Did he consciously think: "I'll be really good before Christmas so that I can stay on Santa's good list, and then right after Christmas I'll be really naughty because I'll have all year to make up for it!"

It's possible that those very thoughts were running through his head right here at this very moment:)

Actually, I know he's not THAT manipulative - the late nights and parties and junk food were starting to wear on him.

Look at these angelic faces

On this particular night, Shawn and Caden had left to go watch the last Harry Potter (the only two in our family who are interested in that show) and the girls and I decided that it would be fun to play their new game, "Apples to Apples".  Nolan wanted to play, too, so I told him to come sit by me and be on my team.  He said, "No!! I want to do it all by myself!"  I explained to him that this was a game that you had to know how to read to be able to play it all by yourself.  He sniffed,  "Well, then I'm not going to play!!"  And stood glowering at us from the doorway for some time.  Then he disappeared, and we forgot all about him until I noticed that Abram needed a new diaper. I hollered down the stairs to Nolan, asking him to bring up the wipies.  He responded, "I can't. I did something really bad and I'm trying to fix it!"  (Cute!) I asked him what he did and he told me that he had put melted candle wax (from my scentsy candle) all over the wall. (Not so cute) He was busy trying to scrub it off with a cloth. (Cute again)

We got that all taken care of, but he still had a defiant, "I'll-show-you-guys" kind-of attitude and was trying to pick a fight over anything that was said.  It was way past bed-time, so I said, "You know what?  You just need to go get into bed now."  "NO!!" he responded.  I responded by starting to count. He responded by running into his room and slamming the door shut. I responded by thinking, "Hmm...How serious will it be if he doesn't brush his teeth and use the bathroom?  I decided that I didn't want to have to change his sheets the next morning, so I tried to open his door and get him to go take care of those things.  The door was locked.  I asked him to unlock the door.  "NO!!!", he responded.  I responded by counting.  He responded by ignoring my counting.  I responded by telling him that if he didn't unlock his door he was going to be in a lot of trouble!  No response from the other side of the door.  I went and got a bobby pin, and stuck it into his door, but it wouldn't unlock.  From the other side of the door, Nolan gloated, "I'm holding the button down so that you can't get in! I don't want you to get in because I don't want to get into trouble." (smugness in that little voice) OOdalalee!! I was pretty steamed!! He could tell and he finally took me seriously.

A few days ago, Nolan developed a serious limp.  At first we didn't really take it seriously, but he kept it up for at least three days, and never forgot to limp.  We figured he was faking it, and went along with it, but at the same time he kept it up for so long that Shawn started to say that maybe we should take him to the doctor.  Nolan started to look mournful whenever we discussed it.  He worried that perhaps he had cancer of the blood and that was why he had so many bruises on his leg. :)  Then one day I heard Nolan screaming upstairs, obviously in a great rage.  In front of his fury ran Isabelle as fast as her legs could carry her.  She reported that Nolan had confided in her that he had been faking about his leg all along (he was angry because she said that she was going to go tell.)  Wait a minute.  Did I actually say that he wasn't very manipulative?  We found this pretty funny, and especially that he had limped around for so long that it was a hard habit to break and he had a slight limp for a couple of days after that!

So far today when he didn't get exactly what he wanted exactly when he wanted it, he told me "I wish that I could go to school.  Then I wouldn't have to see you anymore!!"

Currently he is back to his penitent, loving self, and I think I'd better go give him an extra dose of extra-loving attention so that he can do better today!