I'm so tired of being alone...

This song has been in my head ever since Izzy forced us to take our discipline to a new level tonight. I blame boredom as the culprit, but either way consequences must be had. Izzy has been sick for 5 days now, which means no outside contact, no fun play dates or weekend trips. A whole lot of nothing. Then you add in the whole Asher situation and it makes for a very boring and quiet house.

Izzy is naturally obedient. He always wants to make everyone happy and he is devastated to know if he has hurt someone (especially me). Normally a stern look and an occasional time out does the trick. But the boredom/sickness has upped the stakes at our house and his blatant disregard for my requests had hit the limit. I had heard "Why?" "I don't want to!" "I don't like that food!" "I heard you, but I wasn't a good listener", one too many times this weekend. So I gave a serious warning that had never been uttered before. If he disobeyed one more time, he would not get a time out, but instead, spend the rest of the night in his room where he would have to play by himself and not talk to anyone-only coming out for potty breaks and even eating dinner in his room. Grounded to his room, all alone.

My brother and I were often grounded to our room and that really wasn't the disciplinary action that worked best for me.(Shh, don't tell Mom) I enjoyed alone time. I liked the solace of my room, so no big deal for me. I will do my time in quiet thank you very much. Izzy on the other hand, loves people. He needs to know what is going on all of the time, and makes me recount each day where everyone is: Papa-work, Grandma-work, Daddy-school. Soon after the warning turned into a real punishment when he again chose to do what he wanted to do instead of following direction. So when this consequence left my oh so tired lips, devastation flooded him and the hysterical begging began. I sent him to his room and told him he could play or read quietly and that I would bring his dinner when it was ready. He refused to leave his bed, he probably couldn't because the hyperventilation wasn't allowing enough air for him to move freely. I don't like to see Izzy upset, but sometimes, you have to shake things up. I think time outs had become to easy and he could still see what was going on from the hallway and didn't feel like he was missing out on much. Izzy was probably in his room a total of 45 minutes. In the meantime, my parents both got home and ran to Ashers room to say hello. Izzy heard the commotion and the hysteria went up a level I didn't know existed. He did not like that Asher was getting attention and he was alone, but that was the whole point.

Soon after, he came to his door and begged Daddy if he could apologize to me. I wanted to really make my point, but when I saw his face, I knew I had. He folded his hands together like he was praying and said "Mommy, please please let me be with my family. I am so sorry I was being ugly to you and not being a good listener. I promise, I really really promise I will be my best behavior and never be ugly to you again. PLEAAAAAAAAASSSEEE Mommy, don't make me be all alone anymore.

Cha-Ching! I just found Israels currency!

Izzy and I had a heart to heart and I allowed him to join the rest of the house, but warned that if tonight he continued his behavior he would end up back in his room for the night. He said "Mommy, I won't let that happen." He was totally right. Dinner was amazing. He complimentary, sweet, helpful and made great conversation without interrupting (something we have been working very hard on).

When bedtime rolled around I waited for a possible melt down, but instead I heard "Oh it is time for bed? Ok, I will brush my teeth and go potty." Uh-what? When he was all tucked in he said "Mommy, lets pray together ok, because I want to be on my best behavior all of the time for you. We are best friends and I want to follow the rules." Music to this Mommy's ears. So we prayed together as we always do and he went to bed in complete peace.

Tomorrow he is back at school and I am hoping that brings back some normalcy and cures his boredom. I am quite sure we are going to have a great day tomorrow, he made me a pinky promise.