Things'll Never Be the Same

Status report for the week so far. Yes, I know it's only Tuesday, but it feels like ... Thursday, maybe.

• The behaviour chart is working great. Well, when I say that, I mean that Sweeney's motivated by the idea of a sticker turning up at the end of a bit of tooth brushing or toy tidying. I put a wild card task on the chart - to leave preschool nicely each afternoon - and tonight, when it looked like he was going to melt down and exit the building kicking every bit of the walls he could reach, I reminded him of the sticker waiting for him at home. Calm prevailed. How does this sit with the idea that we don't bribe our kids to behave well? I'm hoping that eventually the memory of those happy days peeling stickers and putting them onto his chart will be all the incentive he needs to get him to wash his face and brush his teeth. My own face and teeth have never had so much regular attention, to be sure;
• Tomorrow is Pirate and Princess Day at preschool. Sweeney's pretty excited about it. His outfit is genius, if I do say so myself. Possibly not how real pirates have ever looked ... ;
• We've got a fresh houseguest this week - Kimberley's sleeping here for a couple of nights. Sweeney's perplexed - she came over after he'd gone to bed last night, and left before he woke up this morning, so I don't think he really believes that she was here;
• I went retail-nuts yesterday and bought Sweeney a duvet and pillows, to fill the beautiful duvet cover and pillowcase the W-Ds gave him for his birthday. For a month now, I've seen it every day and thought the pattern was of vintage cars, but no, it turns out it's jeeps. Jeeps!! Jeeps from every angle - top, bottom, cross-sections, the whole bit - and a few spark plugs and come cogs and gears and what-have-you. Sweeney loves his Thomas blanket, but he luurrves his Jeep duvet;
• We had Loafapolooza at the M-N's last night. Chicken loaf - yum - followed by banana and berry loaf - superyum. Sweeney came out with some spoons for our dessert, and when I asked him who the extra one was for, he said "that's for my dad" and all the air left the room for a second or two. Then he and Bela resumed running through the house making animal noises;
• We had spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight. A lovely woman gave me a bag of kiwifruit yesterday, and Sweeney and I ate lots afterwards. Felt nice to sit at the "big table" and eat and chat together, and not have to do a single Encourage to get him to pile through his food. I tried to explain to Sweeney that too many kiwifruit might make his poohs hurt through runniness etc. He said to me "Mum, my poohs don't hurt. They just smell" and he popped another spoonful into his mouth.

'Nuff said