"Santa Claus Knows That You Did That?"

There are drawbacks to everything. Take utilizing Santa Claus as a behavior modifier. Hey, it works, and if you have kids, you know you've done it before, too. But I fear that I overused the old "Santa is watching" thing back in December. Mainly because earlier this week, it came back to bite me a bit. Lyndon has had a thing lately of challenging reality when he has meltdowns. I can't explain it any other way. Like he's say, "No we're NOT out of juice" despite the fact that I'm showing him the empty bottle. He just denies reality in these situations. Vikings fans probably did this last week, as well. At any rate, it's PRETTY ANNOYING, and the other night, he had an episode when something was wrong with pirate PJs. Except nothing was wrong and he kept muttering the same phrase until I felt I was locked in a cell in Guantanamo Bay or something. So, I snapped at him and left him to cool down a bit in his room (so I could do the same elsewhere in the house...and for those of you never raise your voices to your kids, I applaud you -- I am a work in progress). A few minutes later, we were both calm and I apologized to him before bed while strongly encouraging him to improve his behavior. The next morning he comes up to me and says, "You are sorry?" I said "Yes, I am." He follows up with, "Santa Claus knows that you did that?" Touche, my son.

Lyndon's quotables are really almost too prevalent to keep up with. The other night, he wanted to wrestle but instead decided to watch "Wall-E" with his brother. As time went on, he looks up at me says, "Daddy, I'm sorry we didn't fight tonight." When I warned Colin not to stay away from Lenny's poop in the backyard, Lyndon said, "When I was little, I walked near poop." He left out the walking barefoot to daycare for 50 miles each day, but I'm sure it's coming.

Colin continues to pick up the pace on his two-word phrases, including "go away," "show mommy/daddy," and "Meek blankie" (the milk/superhero blanket combo that is necessary for him to fall asleep). He continues to be very adept at identifying letters. He's also reaching that point where you begin to hope that maybe this will be the year he gets out of diapers, sparing a good chunk of change every month courtesy of Pampers. I could have a solid beer allowance with just the money we spend on diapers. Not to mention lessening my exposure to poop. I wonder if Sam Adams has ever thought of a diaper based marketing campaign?