Sad Face

With out a doubt, Chase can pull one of the saddest "I'm so neglected" faces I've ever seen. This is the face he gave me when I told him, "no more candy." Do you see the chocolate on his lips? He's obviously had enough. But look at that face, how can you not give in? There is even a little tear!

Actually its easy. I don't give in because I have slowly become immune to the sad face-- sucks to be one of the youngest. Which is probably why he choses to take things into his own hands and get his own damn candy-- even when I have hidden the stools. You've got to admire his determination.

Google Analytics

I love Google analytics. I’m slightly addicted to it. Each morning I check my stats from the previous day. Right now my most popular post is my Death of a Scarecrow post. I keep getting people from random countries searching for something (I don’t know what) in the Google image search that not only brings up that page, but draws them to it. They don’t tend to stick around long. I think the skull with the worms in the eye sockets it just too much for them.

Yesterday I was visited by someone in London. This person got to my site by using the search words, “hate parents” and landed on my I Hate Parents and Children post. I wonder about this person. Does this person hate his parents? Does this person’s child hate him? Maybe this person is looking for other people who hate their parents to commiserate with. All these things made me curious, so I did a Google search for “hate parents” and found a whole lot of people writing about how they in fact hate their parents.

Now I’m wondering if I should go back to school and get that degree in marriage and family therapy. But then I think, why would I do that when I have this blog?

Halloween Candy

When it comes to parenting, Halloween candy is indispensable. I took a lot of human growth and development classes at BYU and never once did they tell me about the candy tool. I have to admit, I feel a little cheated.

If I ever teach human growth and development again, I'm going to add the "candy" discussion in to the curriculum. It's something any good caregiver should know.

The first thing I do after the kids get home from trick or treating is confiscate all their candy.

After confiscating the candy, I pick out the really good stuff, like the Almond Joys and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and put that aside for myself.

Then, I take what is left and dump it into a large bowl. They can have a couple of pieces right away--they did collect it after all. But after that they have to work for it.

I think of it as a version of tip share. Being the boss I get the best tip, and then I decided how the rest is doled out.

For the next few weeks you can hear me saying, "If you eat breakfast, you can have a piece of candy. " and "If you get dressed for school you can have a piece of candy. " and maybe even, "If you clear off the kitchen counter you can have a piece of candy." "No candy until you do your homework," is common.

This morning my two year old wanted something, but I had no idea what he was saying. He was getting more and more frustrated until finally I said, "Really?" as if I really did understand what he was saying. Then before he could protest (because he isn't stupid and knew I didn't understand him) I asked, "Hey, do you want a piece of candy?" He looked at me for a second, and said, "uh huh." Situation defused!

Candy is a great bargaining chip. The police should think about using it. "Give me the gun, and I'll give you a piece of candy." Its uses could be stretched to foreign policy too, "If you stop manufacturing WMDs we'll give you candy." We could even trade candy for oil.

No need to thank me. Making the world a better place is its own reward.

My To Do List

Today I had one goal; I was going to take down the Halloween decorations. It is already 2pm and I haven't come close to starting. It isn't looking like it is going to happen in the near future either.

I took a feminism class while at BYU. There were several gems I learned during this class. One lecture I remember was about women and depression. We were told that women with small children get depressed because they don't think they get much done during the day. The professor said that women have lists of all these things they want to get done during the day, and at the end of the day they can't check much off causing depression.

Her solution was, instead of writing our to do list at the beginning of the day, we should write a list at the end of the day and only write down things you did. This will eliminate the depression because we can check everything off our list.

I think this is a great idea. So this is my check list for today so far:

1. Took kids to school.
2. Thought about taking the Halloween decorations down.
3. Teased my dad for joining facebook.
4. Super poked my dad on facebook.
5. Thought about taking the Halloween decorations down.
6. Had lunch with my mom.
7. Retrieved Chase from the front yard where he was running around wearing nothing but a shirt. Really-- NOTHING but a shirt. His lack of a diaper took the aeration guy by surprise.
8. Thought about taking the Halloween decorations down.

Wow, look at all the wonderful things I have accomplished! I feel so much better!

School Appropriate

The kids can't just wear anything to school on Halloween. Each class has a theme and if they want to dress up, they need to adhere to their theme.

Because I didn't feel like putting a lot of time and effort into two costumes we threw together some class room themed costumes last night.

Madison's class theme was Peter Pan so she went as Tiger Lilly. The brown and the green material is left over from Chase's costume last year. She drew on the front of it with markers. She has a feather in the back of her headband, but it is kind of small so you can't see it.

Kai's class could go as a character from any of the stories they had talked about so far. He decided to go as Johnny Appleseed because then he could wear a pot on his head. He is wearing Chase's overalls. I wanted them to be too short, but when I put them on him they fit just fine, so I had to tighten the straps and roll up the pant legs. Then we made a pot out of duct tape. This is the face he made when I told him to smile.

Teasers and Tricks

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is to watch the CBS Sunday Morning show. A while ago we saw a story about Stave Puzzles. I was completely enthralled. I have always loved puzzles. As a kid, I would to sneak downstairs at night to finish my moms puzzles before she woke up in the morning. As an adult, I'm sure, she just LOVED that. I don't dare ask her about it. As I child I figured she thought it was adorable and was in shock and awe of my fantastic puzzle skills. I'd hate to burst that bubble.

So My husband, being the wonderful person he is, surprised me with my first Stave puzzle. He skipped over the traditional and the teasers and went straight for the trick puzzle. He surprised me with the circus engine . I think I have come close to solving it a few times, but just can't quit get it. Its driving me crazy!

So now I have the boy . . . .


He is all sorts of incredible, and I mean ALL SORTS-- he can really drive you crazy. He likes to do things his way even when his way is, well, completely insane.

He doesn't stop talking. Yesterday I kept him home from school because he was sick. Because we would be together most of the day, I decided it would be fun to keep a tally of how many questions he asked. I tallied 300 around 1pm, and quit counting. 300 questions by 1pm while sick? Impressive? I think so!

He loves to build things. He sneaks boxes out of the recycle bin and hides them in his room so that he can make everything from robots to rocket ships out of them.

Needless to say, he has been having issues with Kindergarten. Apparently he doesn't do well with conformity-- go figure. I was concerned because I was afraid that he wouldn't ever be able to find a job that would work with his "out of the box" kind of thinking.

It just dawned on me today that I don't need to worry. He can design teaser puzzles when he is older. That way he can build things AND drive people crazy for the rest of his life. It'll be great!

Sisyphean Task