Redacted

I would like to, at least temporarily, redact my statements about how Penny is the happiest kid ever.  

I went to the baseball game last night with a friend and missed the fireworks at home.  I worked late to avoid driving the 15 or 20 minutes home just to drive 30 minutes back to the stadium.  After The Wife picked the kids up from daycare, they wanted to call me to let me know that they had a really good day and no one misbehaved as they had the previous day... with the biting and hitting.  I talked to her for a minute and all was well.  The evening was quite the opposite.  After dinner, The Wife told Penny that she needed to come in the kitchen and clean up the floor under her seat, as there were bits of pasta all over the place.  The idea of cleaning up did not sit well with Penny, so she FREAKED OUT.  She had a complete meltdown crying and yelling for no real reason... other than not wanting to do it.  In the end, Leonard stood back and watched as The Wife picked Penny up, carried her to her room (struggling all the way), and put her in bed.  Leonard then went with The Wife to watch a quick tv show before reading a book and going to bed.  After the fact, The Wife filled me in via text about what had happened, so I was up to speed on the whole thing.

This morning, the surliness continued from Penny.  As I was helping Leonard with his clothes, teeth brushing and hair, I asked her why she had behaved like that last night.  No answer.  I asked if that was going to keep happening.  No answer.  Once the shoes were on and we were ready to go, I strapped Leonard in and then went to her side of the car to fasten her seat.  She continued with her sullen face.  I asked if she was mad.  She shook her head "no".  I asked if she was sad.  Again the "no" head shake.  From the other side of the car, Leonard whispered, "I think she's mad".  He was just excited and happy to be the one that wasn't getting in trouble for a bad attitude probably.  We headed off to daycare, Penny in silence and Leonard yapping his trap all the way.  He even carried the new bag of diapers in to his teacher... as he sprinted for his classroom.  Penny continued to mope her way across the room to play with some other kids.

Tonight we will be starting their sticker charts.  We're hoping that rewarding them for their good behavior, rather than punishing them for less than good behavior, will help the situation.