Giving Credit

Since I feel like much of the time I talk here about how hard everything is, I thought I would make a point of saying how wonderful this morning was and give a few other bits of good news.

First of all, I have a new tactic. Pretzels! Both kids love them. I’m not sure how healthy they are but I don’t think a handful a day is going to kill anyone. The promise of pretzels eaten in the car, at least today and yesterday, got Leo out of the house relatively easily (Ellie, bless her heart, is still at the adorable age in which she follows directions cheerfully. Me: “Time to go bye-bye.” Ellie: “Yay!” then pads excitedly to front door and waits). But this morning Leo was so agreeable it was almost eerie. He walked out to the car like a little gentleman, let me put him into his car seat without kicking or squirming. There was virtually no whining and all I had to do was hand Leo his bowl of pretzels and listen to (mind numbing) Dora on the stereo in the car.

Another sweet thing was that Leo offered Ellie a pretzel without any prompting from me. She signed “more” and he held one out for her, saying “Ey-yee, Ey-yee” (that’s Leo’s version of Ellie). This is one of those times where it’s not a bad thing that they are close enough to touch in the car.

Oh! I almost left out the best part. There was a bag with a dirty diaper in it on the front porch that I placed outside last night (we used to be able to leave them on the back porch but the dog has discovered she can tear into the bag for a “treat” – ugh!). Anyway, as I was putting Ellie in her seat, Leo picked up the bag and without any prompting, calmly and sweetly walked up the driveway and placed the small bag into the garbage can. What a sweet helper!

And Leo has stayed dried two mornings in a row at school, peed on the potty two times at both school and daycare and drumroll please…he pooped on the potty last night.

And and and...as if it couldn't get any better, he ate Three, count them, Three carrots (mini) last night. Dipped in ketchup, but still. Vegetables, folks.

My cup runneth over.