january

this is thomas' best, 'i don't know mom, am i cute? face.' sweet marshmallow, you're precious. and so's your bro.
oh january. the never-ending month of dreary cold gray blah. mucky murky dark dank january. luckily february is right around the corner. so we got that goin for us.
i guess it's fitting that we're knee-deep in control crazy twoness. to save ourselves, tayloe and i decided to step off most of the time because nothing will make you lulu like arguing with a two year old over who's going to let the dog out. there are maybe a handful of things we stand ground on and most of those relate to safety, personal space and sleeping and eating.
that's why when t2 started refusing to eat at the dinner table and telling us where he wanted his plate (oh no he didn't) and everything we said or did to change his attitude failed, we pulled out the big guns.
bribery. the cold, sweet ben & jerrys kind. oh the power i feel knowing there's a pint of willie nelson's peach cobbler in the freezer.
i'm not even sure tayloe got the concept of sweets and desserts until last month when i started running out of creative things to do on rainy days and resorted to baking. turns out, december had a lot of rainy days. we made a lot of cookies.
with the promise of dessert, he's peacefully eaten most of the food on his plate at the counter for four nights straight. to sweeten the deal, i got him a new truck placemat. tonight he was so full he didn't even finish his dessert.
i know it's not about winning and losing, it's about compromise and teaching and taking it all in stride and BLAH BLAH BLAH.
I WON. i love it when i win. i'm going to gloat. nah na nah na na nah. I WON I WON I WON I WON.
for now, at least.