Uncouth

If you were told that Evie is a bit uncouth would it surprise you? If not, how about this one for ya... I walked in to pick up Evie from preschool yesterday and she was inside washing her hands with her teacher instead of out on the playground. Her teacher turns to me and very embarrassed says "Oh, we just found Evie over in the corner on the playground peeing on a tree." Now of course my first reaction is raucous laughter, because, clearly, Evie is not the only uncouth Lacroix. But I bit my lip and in a very serious face told Evie that is was not OK to pee on trees at school... that this is only something she can do while she is camping. Her teacher at this point now is trying not to crack up too, having realized that I am no puritanical pee enforcer. I asked her why she didn't just go inside and she proclaimed, quite matter of factly "Because I didn't want to and the tree was right there."

Evie kept questioning me why she could pee on trees while camping and not at school and I ran through a litany of reasons, it is yucky, it might make people sick, school has different rules than the woods... I think those were my three best. In the end I proclaimed, "Well Evie it is OK, you were just confused." To which she replied "No mommy I wasn't, I just wanted to pee on the tree." I can see that we are going to have to be more rigid with where we permit peeing...