Conversations with Sebastian: Son, you are lucky you are still standing

We've decided that since it isn't really feasible for us to take big, sprawling family vacations at this point in our life, we would focus on getting the kids outside and 'at one with nature' and all that hippie bullshit that my husband subscribes to but would totally fight me to the death on whether or not he actually can be considered a hippie.  (Yes you can, Christopher, in spite of your gun collection.  I think the homemade beer seals the deal.)

We thought it would be a good year to try camping with the kids, provided Adele settles down a bit and stops making her presence known with biting and spitting.  Of course, we could always just let her sleep outside to keep the bears and other wild animals away.  I'm pretty sure she's much more frightening to them than they are to her.  She'd just say 'Awwwwwww!' and try to give them a hug.  And then kick them.  That's how she rolls.

The kids were given extremely nice sleeping bags for Christmas from Chris' parents, and they are in love with them.  And Chris found a good deal on a nice, six-person tent so we're all set for warmer weather. 

The tent arrived a couple of days ago and we haven't been able to set it up to get a good look at it yet, but Chris said that he'd take care of it tonight provided the downstairs is clean.  He was speaking to Sebastian because he has been a bit lazy lately when it comes to picking up after himself, and told him that he had to do most of it. 

Of course that didn't happen because most of the stuff that needed to be cleaned was just clutter that was laying around that for some reason I am the only one who knows where to put.  And so I did.

Since Sebastian hadn't really done anything I told him this afternoon that he needed to clean his you-can't-see the-floor-for-all-the-toys room before the tent could be set up tonight. 

He disagreed.

S: My dad didn't tell me I had to.

Me: Well, I'm telling you that you have to.

S: Well Dad didn't tell me to and he's more righter than you.

Me: What did you say?

S: He's more righter than you so I don't have to clean my room!

Me: (In my head: OH NO HE DIDN'T!)   We are both equally in charge, so if you want to set that tent up I suggest you get upstairs and clean your room.

I'm pretty sure that the only reason he wasn't physically pushed up the stairs was because this conversation happened through the bathroom door while I was peeing. 

Smart-ass in training