Love and Logic take two

We are once again trying Love and Logic. Things got a little out of control for a while there, especially at bedtime. They would be running around, jumping on their beds… it was a disaster. It took only two ‘enforceable statements’ to fix it. The first was “Little boys that use their mattresses correctly get to keep them.” I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that one. The first jump came from Luke. I calmly went in and said, “Oh, no! The mattress has to go bye bye!” Of course, I felt stupid dragging a toddler mattress out into the hall. Luke was devastated when he realized his nap would have to be on the floor. Luckily, they both learned from that one experience. On a side note, Patrick begged me to “take my mattress, too!!!” so I did. The empathy was sweet, even if no one napped that day.

Our other big victory is ongoing because little boys are forgetful and not always as tired as we would like them to be. The two rules for bedtime are to stay in bed and be quiet. “Little boys that follow the rules get to keep their animals,” is all we say every night. This gives them three chances since they each have three animals: Cow, Giraffe and Doggy for Luke and Piggy, Monkey and Puppy for Patrick. Scott went in tonight to some noisy boys and kind of misspoke. Instead of giving each boy a choice among their own animals, he said, “Uh, oh! That’s so sad! Should I take piggy or cow?” Immediately, Patrick responded, “COW!” (No empathy from Patrick tonight!)

Another classic quote from Patrick came when he brought me an unwrapped piece of gum. This always strikes a little fear in my heart wondering about the rest of the pack of gum. I asked Patrick, “Why did you get out this gum?” He very seriously responded, “You NEED it, Mommy!”

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The above pictures are of Patrick and Joe dusting. Yes, dusting. Another part of Love and Logic is making kids do chores to help out the family. I just wanted to document the occasion, just in case it never happens again.

Today, we had a follow up exam for the boys’ kidney issues. They each had to get renal ultrasounds. We got a sitter for Joe and Andrew and off we went. I was *shocked* at how absolutely wonderful they were during the procedure. They both lay perfectly still and tried very hard not to laugh or squirm when it was obviously tickling them. The technician confessed that she wasn’t looking forward to the appointment. Two-year-old twins can be totally unpredictable, but they were so great! Way to go, boys! Will someone please remind me that their next appointment is in 13 years? (Apparently everything was okay!)