it's time to play "Let's Make a Deal"...........

Put on the Guy Smiley face with the Vince Fontain(Grease) voice when reading this......

Guy- THANK YOU,

FANS AND FRIENDS AND ODDS AND ENDS.

YOU JIMS AND SALS ARE MY BEST PALS. 

TO LOOK YOUR BEST FOR THE BIG CONTEST, 

BE YOURSELVES AND HAVE A BALL, AFTER ALL. 

FORGET ABOUT THE CAMERA AND 

THINK ABOUT THE BEAT. 

GIVE THE FOLKS A TREAT.

Now let's get ready to play 

LET'S   MAKE   A  DEAL    WITH   

          A   BABY!!!!!

The crowd goes wild.

A- Cole if you quit sucking your thumb, we'll buy you 

     a scooter!

CB- What color? Green?

A- YES!  Can we make a deal???

CB- YES!

.....5 months later, thumb sucking

A- Cole, if you take a bath I won't wash your hair!  Can 

     we make a deal?

Cole - YES!

 .....in the tub screaming and gnashing of teeth trying 

       to bathe.

A- Cole, If you are a good boy today while I am taking Sky

         to the Doctor I will buy you a Hot Wheel!  Can we

           make a deal son??

CB- Yes, Momma, I'll be a good boy!

    ...when I get home I hear nothing but havoc that was 

   wreaked and how they're never going to keep him again. 

     Here's the thing, one on one time is angelic....two on

    one time or three on one time....demonic whine fest.

A - Cole are you going to play soccer on your next game 

        and tuck your shirt in?

CB - yes Momma, I AM I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY MY 

        SOCCER GAME.

A- Can we make a deal?

CB- YES!

....get to the soccer field last night with a shirt tucked 

in, ready to play.  

On the field the games starts. He 

decides he doesn't want to play after all.

..........strand by strand with tweezers, I tell ya.

...With CB it is all about the follow up.  We had asked him if he wanted to play    soccer.  He said, "yes."

"Okay then, you'll have to tuck your shirt in and be part of 

your team."  He understands this and relays to us he was 

just tired the last game and so forth...leading us to believe 

this was a one  time fluke event.

Um, no.

I had told him if he showed his butt again we were not 

going to stay at the field.  That I was going to take him

home and he would go to bed. We had to drive a long way 

over to the field, Dad has to get off work early, everyone is

adjusting to fit your needs.... so bad attitude = go home 

and go to bed.

CB- Okay Momma.

Last night, after looking forward to playing a game all day

and tucking his shirt in effortlessly...he had a melt down 

on the field and would not play.  I relayed our deal....no

playing, bad attitude = go home and go to bed.

He called my bluff.

CB- I want to go home and go to bed, I don't want to play.

He is just about to get worked up into a fit, I can see the

horse back leg kicking moves about to commence.  So I 

tell him to get up we are leaving.  He leaves the field 

area sucking his thumb, with D still coaching his team. 

The other parents are looking at me like, "What the heck?" 

I suspect. I tried not to imagine the thoughts going 

through their minds, cause.....EMBARRASSED.

I have to deal with the follow through.

I 100% understand the boy is 4 3/4 years old.  I 

understand he may not be ready for organized sports

no matter how hard he plays in the back yard.  I

understand kids get tired by the end of the day.  I 

mean he's my 4th kid for petes sake, but his blatant

determination to not do what he originally said he was 

going to do, irritates the crap out of me. 

D told me I should have left him at the field and made him 

sit the game out,  tis what my mom told me also.  Which is

what we did last week.  CB is clever enough to remember 

if we followed through or not, he forgets nothing. 

He knows exactly how far he can push before the gong 

rings.

My parenting skills suck these days.  I have been praying

for grace to be a better parent incessantly since we got in

the car last night.  I don't want to come this close to the 

teenager-hood in my older kids and lose my perspective 

now with the youngest one.  

I thought by now I would have worked out all these kinks.

um, no.

All this to say...

You CAN NOT make a deal 

      with a baby.

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