Hold Up

Fighting For Kindness

KINDNESS BEGINS WITH ME? Nope, with mommy making us into fireman and having us climb the kindness ladder before she will give us anything.

As a parent do you ever wonder, "What the heck has happened to get us here?"

I thought that the other morning when I asked my kids, "What would you like for breakfast?" and they both yelled at me, "Chips!" What!? Since when do they think that is breakfast? So, I calmly said, "No, we don't eat chips for breakfast. What else would you like?" Their reply, "Popsicles!" When I said no to the popsicles, it was over. Tantrums ensued for 10 minutes. I then wondered, "What the heck has happened to get us here?"

Well, I didn't mean to become a breeding factory for little, rotten boys (I don't really think that my kids are all rotten...they just have their moments) but I recognized that things were getting ugly, and so the kindness ladder was my solution.

I basically took away all of their toys, and other things that they considered to be a natural part of their days, like popsicles, going to the park, etc. and now they have to earn them by climbing the kindness ladder. It has been slow going at first, and we still aren't completely successful with it, but I'm through beginning my days with demands for popsicles and 10 minute tantrums. I'm the mom here! As silly as that last sentence sounds, during test times when Josh is completely consumed with school, and I feel like I have been with my kids alone for weeks solid, I have to remind myself, because sometimes you just want to let someone else have a turn.

Company!

My parents recently visited us...thanks for coming Mom and Dad. It was nice to have the company, but it was also a sad look into my life. Mom and dad are not as young as they once were, and so I thought that perhaps a healthy dose of sitting around my house, and some leisurely trips to local parks would be enough excitement. I think I was wrong. They looked bored. I don't blame them, I'm bored a lot of times too, so I suppose it's only fitting. One good thing that did come of this is that the two of them both born and raised in Utah, came to me looking a bit like the California Raisins due to the extremely dry climate (see above picture), but

after one therapeutic week with me and a healthy dose of Wisconsin humidity, and they left here looking plump and juicy. In fact, the picture on the right is of them just minutes before I dropped them off at the airport, watching HGTV on my couch for the last time.

Mom and Dad, it was fun to have you here. The boys miss you already. They are certain despite your miraculous change in appearance from the time you got here to the time you left, that every old person they see, whether at the park or the store is Grandma and Papa.

Is This a Parade?

I thought that after the 4th I would have all kinds of cute pictures of my boys doing 4th of
July-ish stuff. Here is the tragic truth.
Josh and I are scrooges when it comes to pretty much every holiday. For the last almost 4 years when a holiday has approached we just say, "Oh, the boys are still too young, they won't know any different." Well, Will is almost 4 and so I decided that it is time that we start celebrating holidays as they are meant to be celebrated, or rather endured in some situations.
We began the 4th of July with a planned father/son bike ride. That was a success.
Next, we were headed to the Franklin City Parade. Will didn't really know what a parade was, so I enthusiastically told him all about the fun things he would see. "There will be fire trucks and police men riding motorcycles. You'll see horses, and decorated cars, and even see something called floats! and the best part, people will just throw candy at you--that's right, free candy!" I talked it up so much that I even started to get excited. What a stinkin' let down!
Here is the sad reality. There were no floats, no policemen, you can forget the horses, and the biggest disappointment, no candy. Instead we got what seemed like random people driving down the road in a cool, fast car, nope! driving down the road in their family sedan. In between the line of Mercury Sables, were more random people that were entertaining us? Not really, just handing out fliers for the businesses. Help me understand something, will you? I realize that we were at the end of the parade so it's natural we got the tired, sorry lookin' folks that just wanted out of the sun, but how is it they estimated with great accuracy to be sure to not run out of business ads, but somehow grossly underestimated how much candy they would need to get to the end of the parade. So...here is the parade in a nutshell.
ME: "Look, boys! Yay! Wave hello (even though nobody was waving at them) Clap! Hooray!
JOSH: "Oh, look guys! another car!"
ME: "Oh, look Will, that lady has something for you. Say thank you"
WILL: "What is it?"
ME: "Oh wow Will, you're so lucky! a refrigerator magnet, and a pink paper!"

Here is the best part about kids though. As you can see from my punctuation above, we tried our darndest to make those boys think they were having the time of their lives, and the funny thing is, I think that they probably thought they were. Kids are great.

The best part of this whole experience came the next day. We were playing in front of the house, and our neighbor drove by, and I said, "Will, wave hello." and Will said, "Oh, like a parade?"