Win Some, Lose Some, Play Some

First the good. Today we had a behavioral breakthrough.

I was unloading and re-loading the dishwasher. Iain wanted to "help." So I sent him into his room to get the 2 sippy cups of water in there.

He came toddling out of his room, one sippy cup in hand, then remembered that he needed two. he turned around, got the other cup, and hurried back to hand them to me.

!!!!

Obviously, we rewarded him with an M&M. It's like an allowance. In chocolate.


Now the bad.

Friday I packed Iain's lunch and (as usual) thought to myself, "This is all carbs! Bread, jam, fruit, juice - nothing but sugar!" So I cut up some carrots (which Charles points out are pretty sugary, for vegetables) and put them in with a tiny tub of ranch dressing.

No dice. He didn't touch them.

Tonight I was chopping carrots for our salad, and Iain said, "I have it."

"Would you like some carrots? That's fine. Did you like the carrots I sent in your lunch?"

"That's SUXTING!" [disgusting]

And with that he got down off his stool and stomped off, horrified by the very idea of carrot sticks.


I spent Friday evening and this morning at a debate tournament. It's the first high-school debating I've seen since I graduated in 1991. I debated in college, but that's totally different in a variety of ways (not least the 'celebrations' that occur on Friday nights).

Last night I foolishly agreed to judge the last round of Novice Congress. Ugh. And double ugh: I left that school at 8:45pm. With no supper.

This morning began again at 7:50, and ended around 1pm. Happily, I got to judge varsity Public Forum this morning, which was great fun. One competitor warned that if people are forced to argue against their faith, they could end up in "heck." I told him there was no such place, and perhaps he meant "Hades."

But later, after I failed to nap and stumbled into the kitchen to take care of the tons and tons of dishes we'd piled up over 36 hours, I realized what parents must love about debate. Get this:

Your teenager, source of misery and destruction, spends Friday night and all day Saturday (I cut out early, but I'm sure they were there until 5) at school. With teachers. Talking about history, politics, etc.

Then they come home, so rocked that they can barely wiggle a finger. No energy to rock out, sulk, or describe how out of touch Mom and Dad obviously are. They just want to eat, sleep, and zone out.

THIS IS GENIUS. No wonder debate parents are so happy and proud.

Oh, and we played "flip" today. "Flip" is a game wherein the beds are made with clean sheets and a certain young man giggles while I flip the top sheet over him 10,000 times. He said, "Do it again!" and I promised that we will, next week.