Totally innocent right?

In January I started watching a little boy two days a week at our house. Jake is about 6 months older than Karys and he has been "slated" as her "future husband" since we found out he was a boy and Karys was a girl. He comes from the sweetest family - one that is very special and dear to our hearts! I had great hopes when Jake started coming to our house...but

Jake and Karys didn't really like each other at first. There was lots of crying, screaming, arguing. It's like they were an old married couple trapped in the body and with the emotional stability of a 3 year old. It's quite comical to think about now.

We had to spend a lot of time learning about personal space. Jake doesn't want anyone in his space and Karys doesn't even realize that she's invaded someone's space. It's been a job to work through. How to love and care about your friends, speak kindly to each other, and be understanding and forgiving of one another. (They should be ready by the time they get married ;o)

But last week was a break through. Last week all concerns about invading personal space were thrown out and finally it was okay...only it was NOT okay.

Jake and Karys have decided that they like to play together in Karys' room and pretend Hannah is the monster. They'll run down the hall yelling "monster" and then slam the door shut so Hannah can't "get them". They were doing this last Tuesday while I was making lunch. I didn't think anything of it, I was just glad no one was yelling at each other and there was no crying. Once lunch was finished, I went to Karys' room to get her and Jake to come eat, and that's when it happened.

I opened the door to Jake jumping on Karys' bed and Karys dancing in her princess ballerina dress. Okay, not that big of a deal. Well, then, on the floor I noticed Karys' panties that she was wearing earlier. Here's how the conversation went down.

Me: "Karys are you wearing any panties?"

Karys: "Yes!"

Me: "Then why are your panties on the floor?"

Karys: "Because I wanted to change into my princess panties because I'm a princess and I'm wearning my princess gown so I needed to be a princess in princess panties."

Me: "Oh, I see. Well Karys, you can change your panties in front of Jake. Boys and girls don't change clothes in front of each other. You need privacy for that. Do you understand?"

Karys: "I understand."

Me: "Okay, lunch is ready. Let's go eat."

Karys: "But JAKE isn't wearing his underwear."

Me: (Loooonnngg speechless pause. Wondering did I just hear that?) All I can get out is, "What?"

Karys: "Jake has on one of my princess pull-ups."

Me: "Oh my. Well, let's all go in the den and have a talk."

So we discussed that underwear is private, boys and girls don't change in front of each other and we need to have privacy when we change our underwear. We also discussed that you need to keep on the underwear you came in. These are important life lessons that they'll need to carry with them for the rest of their lives.