Halloween (and some Love and Logic, too!)

Megan as Tinkerbell, McKenzie as a glamorous witch, Mason as Bumblebee, and Thomas as Optimus Prime.



Megan really enjoyed trick-or-treating. She wanted to keep going, even after Thomas was done. So we continued on, and he gamely persevered.

All that hard work was worth it!

We just finished taking another round of Love and Logic Parenting classes, and we were obviously not at the top of our class. Mason had been a real stinker on the day that we went to see Disney on Ice. We told him that if he didn't shape up, we would get a sitter and leave him home, because we didn't want to bring him along if he was going to ruin our night. Well, we made a half-hearted attempt to follow through, and then we wimped out. We allowed him to go by considering his reluctantly finishing dinner as qualifying. Boy, did we regret that! Mason was fine during the first half of the show, but at intermission, he got upset because we didn't buy him any of the outrageously priced toys or cotton candy. He said that he "hated ice skating, and ice skating is stupid." Afterward, when the show was over and we were making our way through the thick crowd, he took off and ran ahead of us. Lesson learned.

Yesterday, Mason was still having difficulty making good choices, so we told him that we don't take kids trick-or-treating with us who won't listen and obey. We need to know that the kids we take will stay close by us and be fun to hang out with. Since we didn't feel that he could do that, he stayed home with Michael and passed out candy. At first, he was pretty upset, but then he saw how fun it was to pass out candy. He had a good attitude about it, and was very generous with his offerings. Michael said that whenever he saw trick-or-treaters approaching, he'd call out "Hey! Over here! We have candy!" He also seemed to recognize that his actions had a part in his staying home. He told Michael that next year, he'll be good so he can go trick-or-treating.

It was tough on Thursday to follow through on leaving Mason home, but after we saw the consequences of not leaving him home, it wasn't so bad on Saturday. And now that we see the consequences of leaving him home on Saturday, I think it will be easier next time!