Let the punishment fit the crime or something like that

It seems that in our household these days, I am required more often to be creative in my punishments for Ellie. I have to admit that these punishments are generally few and far between. She has made incredible strides in the last several weeks and is maturing daily. She is an amazing kid. My dad refers to Ellie as being "scary smart." He is so right. She doesn't miss a beat. In fact, she tends to be a step ahead of me, anticipating what comes next. I've been impressed with her poise and her confidence. She demonstrated this today when she went to school. Her sweet teacher Mrs. Laws is out this week spending time with her daughter before her wedding on Saturday. Mrs. Cox has stepped in as the substitute. Ellie was so brave this morning and went off with her class very easily this morning. They all came out with smiles at the end of the day. My guess is that is a very good sign.

After this good day, I was pleased to see that Ellie came home with an awesome attitude. We spent a couple of hours at mama and dad's visiting and eating lunch. While we were there, it started sprinkling. When we came out of the house to get back in the car, Ellie thought it would be a good idea to lick her fingers and smear the rain drops and then smear her spit fingers across the inside of the window. As fate would have it, Ellie looked at me and said, "I guess I probably shouldn't have done that. Maybe I should clean the windows like I cleaned the mirrors?" I told her that yes after nap time she would clean the windows in my van since she made them nasty. I was honestly trying not to laugh. So after we ran our errands after nap, Ellie took the paper towels and window cleaner out to the van and by herself (much to her disappointment) cleaned the windows in the van.

I just love Ellie. However, I must ask: What is it with kids and windows/mirrors?