Love and logic- Mama.

Henry and June unleashed the cute this afternoon. After two days back at work, I needed a nap and some well behaved kids.I got what I asked for because Henry took a three hour nap and June took a 4.5 hour nap, giving Henry and I some one on one time. I think being with 3 kids all morning really wears June out.

Henry thinks the new bumbo seat is so funny. He loves putting June in it to sit up (and then usually sits in it himself when she gets up.

He helps her kick her feet.

Checks her for boogers.

And bestows many gentle kisses.

Baby June is so enchanting that she's even getting Memorial Day presents. Miss Jenny said she couldn't resist this little dress. It is pretty cute on her. We promised that she would wear it ot he Monona Grove Parade on Monday.

Who wouldn't love the USA when it's as cute as this?

Even these dinosaurs couldn't resist giving her a kiss.

But someone should tell June that it isn't appropriate to show belly button until after Memorial Day.

Henry is so funny. His favorite letters are currently "E" and "F." We know this because he has 2 letter puzzles and he keeps those letters either in his bed or in his dump truck. And his favorite color is pink (as in his pink nuk). Tonight I told him that if he cleaned up all of his toys and got ready for bed, he could was Car movie. This all went off without a hitch. In hindsight, maybe I should have suspected something was up. When we got into our bedroom (Henry usually watches his movies on the portable DVD player on our bed), I discovered a big surprise. Henry had sometime during the day climbed on our bed, gotten on the end table and opened my jar of super strength hand balm (the really oily stuff). He then proceeded to smear the stuff all over our nicest set of sheets.

I've been reading a book called "Love and Logic for Early Childhood" as it was highly recommended by my sister and sister-in-law. So I decided to give it a try tonight. I told Henry "Oh no. I'm so sad. We can't watch any movies tonight." (You're supposed to empathize with the kid while you're dolling out punishments.) "Why can't we watch a movie?" After a while Henry said "Sheets are messy." (You're supposed to let them come up with answers and solutions on their own.) "That's right. And until I know I can trust you on our bed, we won't be able to watch any movies." (He knows he's not supposed to be over there.) This lead to a meltdown, so I left him upstairs while I went to put the sheet in the washer and when I came upstairs, I continued the empathy, we read a few books and then he went to bed. All in all, I think it went pretty well. He didn't cry himself to sleep or throw an hour long fit over a DVD, which is what I would have expected. Now according to the Love and Logic book, to make the lesson really sink in, I should deny him DVDs about 7 more times before I finally let him have the privilege of being on our bed. I don't know if we'll be able to hold out that long.

June is skeptical of this new method, but she says she's willing to give it a try if we thinks it will work.