Sucker.

I am so tired of telling Tyler not to play with the trash can.

It is just the right height for him. He loves to put things on top of it so he can knock them off. And he likes to rock it because it makes a lot of noise.

He really plays with it when I'm trying to work because he knows it'll get my attention.

In the last 30 minutes, I've told him 10 times not to play with it and tried to steer him to an acceptable form of play. I can't bring myself to spank him because he's really not feeling good today. (Besides, it doesn't seem to faze him when I do pop him.)

Anyway, fed up with it all, I dumped him in his pack n' play (playpen) a few minutes ago. As I was doing it, I thought, "This is a bad idea." You see, I have to put him in the pack n' play when I'm doing interviews, so I had already decided that I can't use it for punishment and a safekeeping area. I don't want him to think he's in trouble every time I have to make a work call.

But in the frustration of the moment, I forgot about that decision.

So instead of walking off, I sat down and stared at him. "Don't touch the trash can," I said. "Do you understand?"

He stared back at me solemnly.

Then he grinned and ducked down behind the side of the pack n' play. He jumped back up and grinned again. I laughed and said "peep-eye."

This is what I do when he's strapped in his high chair and I'm cleaning up the food he's dropped. I jump up and say "peep-eye" from different places. (I don't know why my family says "peep-eye" instead of "peekaboo" but that is what I heard as a child and that is what pops out of my mouth when I'm playing with Tyler!)

Now he was in charge of the game and he ducked down several times and I played along with the "peep-eye" bit.

Some punishment, huh?