Procrastinating Love and Logic

I was really looking forward to this long weekend and had great plans to play with my family. Well, we all got sick - me getting the worst of it. So much for a fun and romantic Valentine's weekend...

So Monday morning I was determined to "snap out of it" and take Tyson to his swim lessons and let Jacob swim at the pool, knowing many neighbor friends would be there for him to play with. I sat there, runny nose and all, for over 2 hours while my boys played and played and played - my ploy to get them to release some of there pent up energy from this very long winter we are having. They were having so much fun that even after all of our friends left, we stayed.

By 12:30 I was hungry and ready to go. I held up the first towel - Tyson's "Sponge Bob" towel from Easter last year. Jacob refused to get out, but Tyson jumped out and into his towel. I then held up the "Lightening McQueen" towel - Jacob's gift for Easter, and he threw a fit! "No, I wanted the Sponge Bob towel!" And he refused to get out of the pool. What is a mom who is feeling yucky and just wants to go home to do? My counting and threat of making him take a nap had no effect on moving him out of the pool. So I took off my shoes and sox, rolled up my pants, stepped into the pool and dragged him out. Of course, in grabbing onto his arm, I gave him the perfect excuse to yell out, "Ouch! You're hurting me!"

The next step was to get him out of his wet swim shirt, and into a dry shirt, jacket and shoes. It's a new swim shirt, so neither of us knew how it fit, and it stuck to his head as I tried to get it off. Now he really started shouting, "Mom, you're hurting my head!" At that point, Tyson leaned over and quietly whispered to me, "Mom, everyone's staring at us." I finally just picked Jacob up and carried him out, trying to look as loving as I could so no one would call Child Protective Services on me.

When we got home, Jacob quietly got dressed and then said, "I can't have lunch till after my naptime, can I?" I set the timer for 20 minutes and told him he could come out when it went off. I heard it ding, and went into his room. He was sound asleep. I then realized why my threat to make him take a nap had no effect on persuading him out of the pool. He was probably thinking, "Wow I'm tired! And if I keep on yelling at her, she's going to let me take a nap!"

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to reread "Parenting with Love and Logic". I've obviously been procrastinating!

My Sleeping Angel!