Banished

J and I were talking this morning about one of our favorite stories. I had put Zee in the bathtub (no water!) while he took a shower so that I could get a few more minutes of sleep. When J saw Ze banished to the tub, he laughed and said it reminded him of when we were in Wisconsin....

This was just last June, when I went to help J's sister with her new baby. On my last day there, J's brother W and his wife K had a big get-together. We let the kids play outside, and they were all having fun running around. Kate had a lot of fun not being the youngest (thus the bossed around one), so she was bossing Zee a bit. Since there were adults outside watching the kids, I went inside to see if anyone needed help in the kitchen. After a little while, I went back outside, and to my surprise, I found Zee in the fenced-in garden! She looked so forlorn, walking back and forth along the fence, trying to figure out for the life of her how to get out of there. I rushed to get her out before she destroyed any plants, and when I got to her, I noticed the gate was closed. I asked her, quite surprised, "How in the world did you get in here?!" Ten feet away, swinging away at the jungle gym, was my nephew, looking quite sheepish. Looking guilty as can be, he told me he and his other cousin had put her in there. Turns out that one of the other adults told them they couldn't swing if the babies were nearby. Zee had kept coming up to them, wanting to play, so finally they banished her to the garden! Poor baby! I laughed and laughed and had to tell the story. I think it's one of J's favorite stories now, even though he wasn't even there when it happened.

So, Zee was banished to the tub today so I could sleep. I guess I'm just as guilty....