I'll Give You Chocolate

Prior to this past Halloween, the boys had no idea what chocolate and candy were. I specifically remember a few days before Halloween, Caleb saw one of those little candy-dispensing vending machines full of m&m's and he said "look at all the vitamins, Mommy!"

Oh, how things have changed in less than 2 months! While Joshua doesn't seem to have as much of a sweet tooth, Caleb is now a certified chocoholic. He is now sporting one of the best haircuts he's ever had because I used m&m's to bribe him into sitting still while I snipped away. Chocolate also came in handy while we took our family Christmas picture, and the boys also get an m&m if they pee on the potty.

Well, sometimes the boys say things that make us step back and re-evaluate our parenting practices. On Tuesday Joshua became very attached to a certain toy black car he had found at my midwife's office. He threw a mini fit when we had to say "bye-bye" to the midwife and her black car. Throughout the day, Joshua asked if we could go back to see the midwife and her black car, to which I always replied, "No, we'll see the midwife again in two weeks, and besides you have a ton of cars at home you can play with." Finally, Joshua became desperate. He said, "Mommy, let's go see the midwife and get the black car... I'll give you chocolate!"

When you are futilely trying to reason with a pair of stubborn 3-year-olds, bribery presents itself as a very attractive option. But when your 3-year-olds start to behold chocolate as something that can magically shift circumstances in their favor, you know you've gone overboard. All I can say is that there will be a lot less chocolate bribery going on around here from now on!