(mar 23) Making the punishment fit the crime.

Some days. Ooooooooo some days, I could lose it. Little Miss M's latest love is soda crackers. They are a treat as much as an option (she thinks) for meals. Today, she opened a sleeve of soda crackers and left one "crummy" mess at the kitchen counter and another "crummy" mess at the kitchen table and another "crummy" mess at the threshold of the living room where she had quietly ('cause the rule is 'No Food Outside Of The Kitchen') and sneakily kept the rule by sitting on the linoleum but unknowingly munching over the carpet her crackers on while watching her buddy Dora go exploring. And then, because she must've thought she could push the boundaries today, she ate some more crackers in My Room while I was distracted, working on a project and not really paying attention to where she was and what she was doing.

But then she got caught!

(And boy! I. was. so. frustrated. Crumbs were E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!)

And Lil' Miss M got into suhmmmmmmmmmmmmm trouble. And the punishment for the crime? She learned how to vacuum today. (At first it was fun, even though she was a little scared of the big and loud machine. And she couldn't figure out if she was supposed to smile and say, "cheese" for the camera. [Talk about mixed messages from the momma bear!] But then she started whimpering it was just too heavy. So I really stressed to her how heavy it was, and how she would have to use that heavy beast to vacuum up after herself. Heavy. Heavy. Heavy. And that adjective worked. Because she was oh so repentant.) I know, a mean momma is at large in this house!