You Tell Him No

Last week, one of my friends asked me if I had an opportunity to do things individually with each of the boys, and after thinking about it, I told her, no not really.  As a parent of more than one child, I can totally relate to that little schedule that Jon and Kate (plus 8) used to adhere to: some sort of rotation for one on one trips with their children.  Now, I realize that the marriage dynamics were totally cray on that show, but the kid rotation actually was genius.  Spending time with just one of my boys makes it all the more special.

But there's this weird thing that comes over me when I'm out with just one of my children, usually they're so well behaved that I end up buying them something.  Most of the time, my inner monologue goes something like, "he's so cute and he's being so good, of course he needs that spatula."  Well, the other day, Arden got me with a chocolate donut.  We took an early morning trip to the grocery store and he conned me into letting him eat the donut right then and there; it was a mess.  The whole time I was thinking, "you know what? this probably isn't a good idea, but he's behaving so well, he deserves it!"

And that's the truth, he did deserve it.  He was definitely the happiest little guy in that store at that very moment and I was happy to just be spending some time with him all to myself.