SO... Last night at bathtime, I noticed that Lil1 has a large scratch on her back, clearly made by a fingernail, or other type object (nailhead? drawer pull? bathroom fixture???)... So, I called in MommyM and showed her, she thought it was odd, and asked Lil1 what happened. "A monster scratch me!" A monster scratched you? "Yeah! Monster went RAAAAWWWWRRRRR! and scratch me!" (shows claws) Hmmm... This is getting no where fast. Sister is already asleep... OK.
We went through the day today, all was well, saw the scratch again at bath tonight and asked Big1 about it.

Big1, do you know how Lil1 got these scratches on her back?
"UHM... I might have probably did it."
You 'might have probably' scratched your sisters back like that?
"Yeah, I might have probably done that last year when we were playing monster" ("last year" USUALLY means within the past week or so... a "monster" really did scratch Lil1's back...)
"Uhm, yeah, I might probably have."
(ok, deep, calm breath, speak controlled) WHY?
"Well, the other year when we was playing monsters and was scratching, I might have probably done that."
Big1, you can. not. scratch your sister. You are much larger than she is and much stronger than she is and it hurts really really badly when you scratch her. Why would you try to hurt your sister?
"Uhm, a'cause she was trying to be scratching me. An' so I scratched her back to get 'er away..."
So you were playing monsters and were scratching and you scratched her back because she was trying to scratch you?
"yeah-huh"
Alright. That's not ok. You can not scratch your sister.
"ok, am I in big trouble Mama?"
NO, you are not in big trouble right now. Tomorrow, when CPS worker comes over, we will talk to her and see what she thinks we need to do. If you Ever. hurt your sister like that again, you can bet you will be in REALLY BIG trouble. That is not ok.


Upon closer inspection, we see that there are three or four scratches on Lil1's back, none this bad... But how could we have missed this? Thinking back, MommyM thinks she knows when they all happened. We just didn't react because she didn't communicate what was wrong when we came flying into her room after an ear pearcing scream... instead she shook her head and made little fists and a giant pout. Something Lil1 is well known for when she isn't getting her way and wants to get her sister in trouble. She also does it when she just wants to tick us off, not go to bed, have a different snack, pull out every toy in the room and throw them on the floor, throw food, have a different beverage than the one she just asked for, or is REALLY PLEASED with something... We will now be more reactive.

Anyone have ideas of what else we should be doing? (we already have a camera set up in their room and are about to put a second one in)
-T