Today

Today we went to the free cone day at our local Ben and Jerry's. Jon and Anna call it "Tom and Jerry's." I think this is so darling that I never correct them. I was trying to keep them from hearing the real name while we were in line (which was probably 50 people deep, at least).

Today Anna kept running into the road. I scream at her to stop. She loves this reaction. It is probably the only time I ever scream at her. Today I told her that I was going to have to get her a leash and a harness. She said, I am not a DOG, Mama! I told her that she was acting dumb like a dog, and since it is my job to keep her safe, I will get her a harness and a leash if need be. I told her that she is very smart but she was choosing to act like a dumb dog who has no sense and just runs out in front of cars. This REALLY ticked her off. Actually she reminds me of a dog when she tries to run away in a parking lot or the street. If I chase her, it just makes her run away faster. I have to just freeze and scream. Of course, if she is within arm's length, I will grab her. But she can outrun me. And she knows this. I normally don't spank either of our kids, but one day at school she ran in front of an SUV, giggling and squealing gleefully at the great fun she was having giving Mama a heart attack. I had already warned her twice that morning, and at my wit's end, I took her in the bathroom and spanked her. I pretty much had to since I had threatened her with it. I foolishly thought the threat would be enough to keep her from running in front of any cars for the 20 more feet we had to walk to get into her preschool. But no. So, she got a little spank. She was shocked. She sat down and yelled at me, Stupid Mama! THAT HURT! I told her, Yes, but getting run over by a truck would hurt a lot more! To which she replied, "But I didn't get run over by a truck! But you DID spank me! And THAT HURT!" I think to her, this made a lot of sense. And if you think really hard, it sort of does make sense.

Today we were talking in the car about how the kids were both going to be VERY good at Mama's doctor appointment, and what consequences there would be if they were misbehaved. When Jon heard that I would take away TV for the day, he thought for a second, and then he told me: Mama, couldn't you just spank me instead? I would much rather have that than lose TV time. Of course, I told him, No. You can't put in discipline requests. I would feel a little ridiculous spanking Jonathan. He is almost as tall as me now. And he is just too grown up and reasonable.

Today when we were at the doctor's office, Jonathan held my purse for me while I stepped on the scale. He is trying to figure out how to read big numbers. I saw him staring at the display and trying to figure it out, and I told him, Jonathan! Don't you dare tell ANYONE that number. Of course, that just made him REALLY want to know the number. He thought he had it right and he guessed, was it 9400 pounds? I told him no. That is like how much a really big whale would weigh. He just stared at me blankly, like, so what's your point? Thanks a lot, kiddo.

Today we were at the doctor's office and they have a really neat aquarium. We stopped to study it, and we were talking about the different fish and which ones we liked best and so on... Anna kept saying, I like the pink ones the best. I kept saying, Anna, honey, there aren't any pink ones. What about those ones with the blue stripes? She kept insisting that SHE LIKED THE PINK ONES BEST. And I kept telling her, there aren't any pink fish. She was getting pretty irritated about it. Jonathan spotted a strange looking fish and I bent down to look at it... and what did I see? A whole bunch of pink fish. I just couldn't see them from my viewpoint. But when I squatted down to Anna's level, I saw that there were indeed pink fish, and they were very pretty. Oops.