A/N: Gracie gets in trouble for playing with the backyard hose without permission.
"Mommy, where's you?" Gracie called out in search of Mommy with her purple sippy cup filled with milk in her hand.
"Mommy's in the laundry room, sweetheart, hold on just a minute!" Olivia called back, and appeared quickly afterwards with an empty laundry basket on her hip, "What do you need, my Gracie-baby?" Olivia smiled lovingly.
"Mommy, I p'ay ow-sigh, peeze?" Gracie asked hopefully, smiling upon hearing her nickname.
"Yes, you can play outside, but you need shoes and sunscreen first, and finish your milk." Olivia agreed indulgently.
Gracie got confused between her left shoe and her right shoe and turned to Mommy for help, and giggled when Mommy gave her feet a gentle tickle while she drained the last of her milk. Then she stood obediently still while Mommy gently applied sunscreen to her delicate skin. With all of that accomplished, Mommy sent Gracie on her way with a gentle kiss to her forehead and a playful spank to her diaper-covered bottom, making Gracie giggle again as she ran outside. She watched the fish swimming in the koi pond for a while, keeping a safe distance knowing that she was not allowed to play in the pond water, and then Gracie climbed into her sandbox, happy that she finally had her very own sandbox to play in. She really liked the sandbox at the playground, but there were usually several little ones wanting to play in it at the same time and only so much space available to share, and Gracie had learned the hard way that refusing to share the playground equipment would result in a soundly spanked tushy in front of everyone on the playground and a ten minute time-out sitting on said tushy. Picking up her toy bucket, Gracie decided to make a big castle with a moat around it and quickly got lost in her imagination, making up a story in her head to go along with her creation and humming nursery rhymes to herself. The big girl inside of her got nervous when she heard one of the neighbors come outside talking on a cell phone, but she relaxed when she remembered that they couldn't see her thanks to the privacy fence, and happily resumed her playing as the neighbor went back inside their house.
"Hold it, my little sand magnet." Olivia smiled when Gracie came running inside covered in sand, catching her around her waist before she had a chance to get sand all over the house.
"Mommy, wet diaper." Gracie giggled as Mommy brushed sand off of her bottom and her shirt.
"Good girl for telling me, we will go change your diaper but I don't want to get sand all over the house in the process. Sit down and give me those little feeties." Olivia took Gracie's shoes off and dumped the sand out of them, adding it to the small pile by the back door. Then Olivia retrieved the broom and dustpan and swept up all the sand to throw it away. With all of that accomplished, Olivia picked Gracie up and carried her to her room to change her diaper.
"One, two, three." Olivia plopped a giggling Gracie down on the bed and began to gently change her diaper. "Did you have fun playing, baby angel?"
"Yeah! I maded a sandcastle for da fairy family! Da Mommy fairy an' da Daddy fairy an' foe baby fairies, and dey has a super huge kingdom an' da baby fairies gonna go to da kingdom 'cross da water…" Gracie babbled happily while Mommy listened patiently to the story she had made up in her head. With a dry diaper and clean clothes free of sand, Gracie cuddled in Mommy's arms while Mommy read to her and then she snuggled down comfortably in her bed for her nap with Jewel clutched in her arms and her pacifier in her mouth while Mommy rubbed her belly until she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Olivia quietly tip-toed out of the room, leaving the door open a crack so that she could hear in case Gracie called for her, and then she went back to the kitchen to retrieve Gracie's shoes and put them away properly. She looked out the sliding glass door into the backyard and noticed that the hose had been unraveled and was lying in Gracie's sandbox, and wet sand was dripping over the sides of the sandbox onto the ground as the sandbox filled with water and Gracie's sandcastle was starting to topple over. Olivia went outside with a sigh, turned the hose off, and pulled it out of the sandbox. There was nothing that could be done except to empty the sandbox and replace it with new sand, which she did, and then she placed the lid on top of the sandbox to keep any critters out of it; Gracie wouldn't be playing in it for the rest of the day. Olivia went back inside and, knowing that Gracie was sleeping, decided to let her sleep and wait until she woke up to talk to her mischievous little one.
A little over an hour later, Gracie woke up and went in search of Mommy. She found Mommy on the couch and Olivia welcomed her little one into her arms.
"Did you have a nice nap, baby?" Olivia inquired.
"I sleeped good, Mommy. I's firsty, I has mo'e milk in mine sippy, peeze?"
"You can have milk in a little while. Right now, Mommy needs to talk to you, let's go to Mommy's room." Olivia stood up and led Gracie down the hall by her hand.
"Mommy, did I do sum'fing bad?" Gracie asked nervously as Mommy sat down on the bed and guided Gracie to sit down on her lap.
"Well, let's talk about it. When you were playing outside today, were you playing with the hose in the sandbox?" Olivia asked, knowing that Gracie wouldn't lie to her. She could count on one hand the number of times Gracie had been caught in a lie.
"I maded a moat for mine castle an' da moat needed water for da crok'adiles to swim in. I not know if I turned da water off." Gracie tried to jump off of Mommy's lap to check, but Mommy held onto her.
"I turned the water off, young lady, and I replaced the sand in your sandbox since the water made it all wet. What's the rule about using the hose, or any other appliance?"
"Not wiff-ow permission." Gracie had no choice but to admit that she knew the rule.
"That's right. The only time you are allowed to use the hose is if you want to play in the sprinkler, and even then, you are not allowed to use the hose by yourself, Mommy has to set up the sprinkler for you."
"Is I in big troubles, Mommy? Is you gonna 'pank mine tushy? I not mean to do nuff'in bad, I was jus' playin'." Gracie's lower lip trembled as tears filled her eyes.
"I know you were just playing, baby, but Mommy has told you that you are not allowed to use the hose without permission. What happens when my good girl breaks her rules?"
"'Pank tushy." Gracie started to cry.
"That's right, spank tushy. But just a hand spanking if you come right here with no fuss, okay?"
Gracie continued to cry, but she didn't fight it as Mommy pulled down her pants and diaper and bent her over her lap.
"Ouchy! I's sowwy!" Gracie wept sadly as her poor bottom began to burn terribly. She wanted so badly to reach back and shield her bottom, but she knew Mommy wouldn't like that, so instead she grabbed one of Mommy's pillows to hold and buried her face in it, breathing in the comforting scent of Mommy's perfume. She heard Mommy tell her that her sandbox was off-limits for the rest of today and tomorrow, and she knew better than to argue about it. She heard Mommy saying something else to her, but she was too busy crying and trying to keep her hands in front of her like a good girl to pay attention to what Mommy was saying.
Sympathetically understanding that her baby girl truly hadn't meant any harm, Olivia spanked her for quite a while, but not overly hard, watching Gracie's bottom turn from white to pink to red. Resisting the urge until she couldn't stand it for one more second, Gracie reached back to shield her tender bottom from Mommy's hand.
"Gracie Marie, move that hand." Olivia scolded.
"Peeze, Mommy, no mores! No mores, I's sowwy! I's sowwy! I no do it never 'gain!" Gracie sobbed miserably.
"I know you won't do it again, Mommy is helping you remember not to do it again. I promise we are almost done, but you need to move that hand and try to take the rest of your spanking like a good girl."
"I's sowwy, Mommy! I loves you!" Gracie sobbed as she reluctantly moved her hand.
"I know you're sorry, sweetie. Mommy loves you very much, just a few more little minutes and then Mommy will cuddle you." Olivia assured her sobbing baby.
Gracie sobbed harder as the rest of her spanking was delivered directly on her tender sit-spots as a consequence for reaching back. Taking her spanking like a good girl certainly didn't require her to take her spanking quietly, so she vocalized the pain with all the abandon of a small child. Finally, the sound of Gracie's sobbing changed and she went limp over Mommy's lap. When Olivia felt Gracie go limp, the spanking was immediately over and the older brunette reached for the arnica. Being as feather gentle as possible, Olivia applied a generous portion of arnica to Gracie's punished bottom and sit-spots while she listened to Gracie sobbing tears of pain and repentance.
"Owie! Mommy!" Gracie pleaded between sobs, wanting nothing more at that moment than for Mommy to pick her up and cuddle her, read stories to her, and make her feel like a good girl again.
"There, there, such a good girl. That's Mommy's good girl." Olivia cooed lovingly as she finished soothing Gracie's bottom with arnica.
"Peeze, Mommy, cuddles! Peeze, cuddles!" Gracie sobbed.
"Of course you get cuddles, Gracie-baby. Can you let go of Mommy's pillow now?" Olivia coaxed lovingly.
With a little more gentle coaxing, Olivia managed to convince Gracie to let go of the pillow. They stopped in the kitchen to fill Gracie's sippy cup with milk like she had requested earlier, and then they went to Gracie's room.
"Mommy, I's so sowwy!" Gracie pleaded as Mommy gently led her to her room.
"Mommy knows you're sorry, lovey. You don't need to be sorry anymore, Mommy is so proud of you for being such a good girl. You were so brave, sweetheart." Olivia cooed lovingly with her arms around Gracie.
"But I covered mine tushy. Dat's naughty." Gracie sobbed in confusion, clutching Jewel in her arms when Mommy handed over the much loved toy.
"You did, but you moved your hand when Mommy told you to, and that was very good and very brave. Come here, baby." Olivia arranged them so that they were comfortable on the bed. Gracie climbed practically on top of Mommy to be cuddled and laid her head on Mommy's shoulder to finish her crying cuddled safe in Mommy's arms.
"Mommy, dat hurted mine tushy. Rub tushy, peeze." Gracie whimpered, and relaxed when she felt Mommy's gentle hand rubbing her bottom to soothe the pain.
When Gracie was mostly calm with just a few stray tears still clinging to her eyelashes, Olivia gently shifted Gracie's position in her arms so that she was still cuddled securely, but laying in a slightly reclined position. Still showering her baby with tender words of love and praise, Olivia gently brought the sippy cup to Gracie's lips and Gracie obediently opened her mouth to receive it, gazing up at Mommy trustingly while she listened to Mommy's gentle voice talking to her. When the sippy cup was empty, Olivia set it aside.
"Mommy, paci, peeze." Gracie whimpered.
"Such a good girl, so polite." Olivia praised as she popped a pacifier into Gracie's mouth.
Gracie cuddled with Mommy and sucked on her pacifier while Mommy read several of her favorite stories to her.
"...I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down! Do you think the big, bad wolf will be able to blow the house down this time?" Olivia asked, gently kissing Gracie's temple.
"Nope, is maded of b'icks. Too 'trong for woofie breaff." Gracie replied, gently rubbing her still bare bottom.
"Let's find out." Olivia turned the page.
When Gracie decided they were done reading, she still wasn't ready for Mommy to let go of her, so Olivia set aside the stack of books and kept Gracie cuddled in her arms while they sat on her bedroom floor playing with Gracie's animal themed Memory game.
"And what are these?" Olivia pointed to the two cards Gracie had just flipped over.
"Is a froggy an' a cow. No match, Mommy's turn." Gracie turned the two unmatched cards face down and waited for Mommy to take her turn.
After two rounds of Memory, Gracie's bottom wasn't hurting nearly as much and Mommy gently laid her on the bed to change her into a fresh diaper.
"Mommy, I's hung'y." Gracie said while Mommy was changing her diaper.
"Well, it's only a little while until dinner. Do you want a snack or should Mommy cook dinner a little bit early?" Olivia offered the option.
"Dinna early, peeze. What's we having?" Gracie asked.
"Liver and onions." Olivia replied, and laughed at the horrified expression on Gracie's cute face, "Mommy's just teasing you, baby. Tonight we're having mahi-mahi and garlic asparagus. Do you want to help Mommy squeeze the lemon and sprinkle the garlic?"
"Yay!" Gracie's dazzling blue eyes lit up happily, her red bottom pretty much forgotten, and she ran to the kitchen with Mommy trailing behind her.