Parenting Advice from the Post Office

The closest post office to our house is located in a dry cleaners (strange, I know). It is extremely busy this time of year, like most post offices. There is a basket of suckers on the dry cleaning desk that they graciously share with PO customers. We've been to the post office enough for Olivia to know their exact location and she gets one each time. We stopped by Tuesday to mail a few things and there was a long line. There was a mom with two little girls (I guessed their ages around 3 and 1.5) in front of us and they and Olivia all got a sucker at the same time. Their mom immediately told them they couldn't have their suckers until after lunch (it was around 11:30 am). I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I told Olivia the same thing. I should point out that I have NEVER made her wait to eat her sucker. She was busy admiring her sucker and didn't pay much attention for a few minutes. The girls played together in line, then Olivia remembered her sucker. She started taking the paper off and I reminded her to wait until after lunch. She looked at me quite calmly and said: "No." She continued unwrapping and I bent down to her level and reminded her again. She looked confused, so I asked her if she wanted to put it in her pocket until after lunch. The other little girls were watching her, eyeing her sucker. This is when she lost it. She threw the sucker across the floor, threw herself on the floor and screamed. Several post office patrons commented on her lung capacity.

Hard to imagine this sweet face throwing a tantrum, isn't it?



The look I was getting was more like this:



I kept talking quietly to her, but it seemed to make matters worse. By this point, we were getting some not nice looks from the other people in line. I headed for the basket to grab another sucker and that's when it happened. One of the women in line said: "I wouldn't do that if I were you." I looked at her and she went on to tell me that her daughter is 16 and she has to tell her "No" to all kinds of things, blah, blah, blah. I said: "It's a sucker and this is the first time I've made her wait to eat it. The tantrum is my fault this time." She gave me a few more words of wisdom, but I gave Olivia the sucker anyway and she immediately calmed down. I hope I don't give unsolicited advice when Olivia is 16! Especially at the post office. Granted, I probably didn't handle the situation the best. I just wanted her to stop screaming, ha!

We had family Christmas pictures made last week and they turned out really well. Olivia did great- really into posing and she fell for every trick the photographer threw her way (stuffed animal on his head, a flower tickling her toes, etc). Here are a few:









So glad we had pictures made this year!

Olivia and I decorated a Gingerbread house tonight. This is what it was supposed to look like:



This is how ours turned out:



Ha!

Naturally, most of the candy ended up in her mouth, but she had fun trying to make them stay on the roof:



And if you come over to visit, you probably don't want to have a bite:



My friend Lindsay and I have been working out together. It works out well, because one of us will work out while the other watches the kids. Last Wednesday, we took Olivia and Lindsay's little boy, Rohen, to the rec center with the kiddie pool. They had a blast while we took turns working out:



Definitely something we should do every week!

Hope you have a good week!