All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 71: New Rules

The pyramid block went into the triangle hole. The cylinder block went into the circle hole. The cube went into the square hole.

Each plastic block landed with a clank in the plastic tin I was depositing them into. With all the blocks having been put through their proper holes, I flipped open the latch on the box and let them all tumble softly onto the carpet.

The repetitive task was mind-numbingly dull, but I would do anything to distract myself from the obnoxious characters in the TV show my little sister was watching. Life lessons thinly disguised behind a bunch of incessant blabbering. And those theme songs. I didn't know if I'd ever be able to get them out of my head after this. What I would give to have a pair of headphones on right now.

But headphones were off-limits. Same with my phone, computer, and any item that wouldn't be age appropriate for a baby. Today was New Year's Eve, and I was still grounded. In this case, that meant literally, as I was no longer allowed to walk anywhere in the house.

I had thrown a bit of a tantrum the day after Christmas. I'd broken character and used my big girl words, asking Mom to let the punishment end. That had been a mistake. I knew better. Asking Mom to relent was only likely to make the punishment last longer.

After a spanking with a paddle on my bare bottom, I was given an additional rule to follow in being a baby. I would now need to crawl around the house.

I had considered myself fortunate that mom hadn't implemented that as part of my punishment earlier in the week. With a wood floor in the majority of the home, my knees were constantly aching. I had tried to scoot around on my well-padded bottom on one occasion, but Mom had immediately put a stop to that. Something about how I was violating the spirit of her rules.

So this morning, like the past five mornings since Christmas, I had slid to the floor after mom after mom had finished changing my diaper and dressing me in leggings and a t-shirt, only to have to crawl all along the floor in a painful and painfully slow journey to the living room.

With all of my big girl items off limits, that left me to play with all the baby toys Mom had given me for Christmas. She'd repackaged a bunch of things that Emilia had outgrown. It wasn't enjoyable, but it beat watching my sister's shows or staring blankly off at the wall. I still didn't know if any regular presents awaited me when this punishment was over. I hoped so, but, if that were the case, Mom hadn't given any indication of that being her plan.

I was stuck in the living room. Mom didn't let me go anywhere where I would be out of sight of either her or Emilia.

The only item I was allowed right now was my pacifier. But by allowed, that meant that Mom wouldn't allow me to take the pacifier out until she had given me permission to do so. That, sadly, was a rule Emilia was also aware of. I had suffered the consequences of her tattling on me for taking the pacifier out on one occasion, so if there was any time when I would take it out of my mouth for a short break, I had to be sure that she was focused enough on her TV show that she wouldn't turn around and catch me.

I'd lost track of how many times I'd fit the blocks back into their box. I'd been mindlessly repeating the task since Emilia had sat down to watch TV after breakfast. I wasn't sure if we were on the third or fourth episode. I could do this in my sleep with my eyes closed. Considering that, it was surprising that these blocks hadn't appeared in my dreams over the past week.

My dreams had lately become stranger than usual, which was a high bar to cross, considering some of the things my brain could come up with while I was fast asleep.

Most of them centered around me wearing diapers. In one, I watched in horror as Mom took a pair of scissors to all of my panties, chopping them up before tossing them in the trash bin. In another, I had been sitting in class at school, but only, instead of wearing jeans or even a dress as I had taken to lately, all I had on other than my hoodie was a diaper. I was forced to come to the front of the classroom to answer a question, but I had to do so with baby talk as my classmates sat in their seats and laughed.