Brewers' celebration

We were hiking at Riveredge and we could hear rifle shots in the distance.

After a particularly distinct one, Luke said, "Daddy, that means the Brewer's scored a run!"

Dave smiled and told him, "The game's already over, Buddy.  They won."

Then Dave came over and told me the what Luke had said.

 A few minutes later, after another loud one, Luke came over and asked me, "Mommy what's that sound?"

"I think someone is practicing shooting their gun at a target."  But I couldn't resist adding, "Or maybe... the Brewers scored a run."

"No, Mommy," Luke told me, as if he knew it all along, "They're not playing right now.  They won."

"Oh," I said, "that explains it!  They must be celebrating."

"Mommy!" Luke said, "Why would they be doing it now?"

"Hmmm... I don't know, Lukey.  Then I guess it probably is someone practicing shooting their gun."

Delicious hopscotch candies

We stopped at a gas station on our way to St. Louis.  On the way into the bathroom, we walked past a big display of $1.69 bags of candy, where Luke evidently saw some butterscotch hard candies.  After we got in the bathroom, he said, "Mommy, you know... I'd bet Daddy would like it if we bought those hopscotch candies he likes."

Because I can't resist when my five-year-olds still mix up words, and because butterscotch is the only non-chocolate candy that Anna actually eats, and because we had three and a half more hours of driving, I bought the bag of candy and gave each kid one.

Luke held the golden disk in his hand like it were actual gold.  He asked, "Mommy, can I save it?"

"If you want to."

Kate asked, "Can I eat mine?"

"Well, of course.  Why else do you think I gave it to you?"

Anna asked for help opening hers and I offered to help Luke open his.  He said, "No, I've decided to save it."

"Okay, but if you do decide you want to eat it, you can have another one tomorrow."

He audibly gasped, then asked, "Actually??  In real life?!"

I'm torn between feeling glad that little things can be so exciting for my kids and wondering if the extent to which I'm apparently depriving them will have negative effects.

It's not like we never have sweets.  We have three-layer cakes for every birthday and for the kids' half birthdays.  They  each have a bag of candy from Halloween, Valentine's, goodie bags, etc and every few days one of them will ask if they can have a treat for dessert and I'll let them have a piece of candy.  In the summer, we'll have ice cream cones almost every week, and around St. Patrick's Day, Dave will buy them Shamrock Shakes from McDonald's and I'll inevitably make one or two at home so Dave will be less likely to buy them the "chemically" ones.  And if we're going to someone's house I'll often make cookies.

But my kids seem to be really conscious of having too many sweets.  I hadn't thought about it, but my kids hadn't asked for any of their candy in a couple weeks.  Then the other day Ally declined (whole wheat) pancakes with her eggs and berries because she said she'd had too many sweets at school lately and she knew maple syrup was kind of like sugar.  Then all the kids started telling each other about all the "unhealthy things" they'd had at school that week.  It turned out all the kids had been given doughnuts at school that day.  Three different classrooms, three different reasons, but they'd all had doughnuts.  I don't mind kids getting to bring their class birthday treats, because that's only 20-some times in nine months, but there seems to be treats coming in for every little reason, and one of the teachers regularly uses candy as a reward, which baffles me, but she's an amazing teacher, so I've successfully bit my tongue all school year.  

But, maybe it's all balancing out well, because my kids seem to be doing a good job of self-regulating.  And, ultimately, that's exactly what I hope they learn to do.

Finley always makes her way into pictures if she notices there's one being taken.

Advocates

One day last week I wanted to wash the kids before school.  

Luke was being crabby and complained and yelled instead of getting in the shower when I'd told him to, so I told him he'd have to have a consequence.

That evening, I told him the consequence was missing watching the Amazing Race with Daddy and the girls while I went to parent coach.

He was so sad and just stood there pathetically crying.  Ally came in and said, "Lukey, if you're upset, I won't watch it either."  Then Anna began attempting to negotiate an alternate, more palatable consequence for him.  "How long would we watch the Amazing Race?  A half hour?  Maybe Luke could go up to his room for a half hour now?"

Man, like it's not hard enough to give consequences without his little empathetic advocates!