Five finger discount

Tonight my 5 year old son, Gerrit, learned a very valuable lesson. A lesson about stealing.
We went to Staples after dinner tonight to pick up some office supplies. As usual, the boys had a case of The Gimmes. "Mommy, can I have this?" "Papa, can you buy me that?" followed by a quick "No" every time.
After a stop at the grocery store and more Gimmes, we headed home to unload our purchases.
Standing in the kitchen, a little toy magnet rolls out of Gerrit's waistband. I quickly remember specifically saying no with the reason that our fridge doesn't hold magnets (stainless steel) and also remembering the time they put a magnet on my laptop erasing my hard drive. Not that I even needed a reason because no means NO!
So how do you teach a kindergartener this valuable lesson? I remember when my big brother was caught stealing a pack of gum at about the same age. My mother marched him into the store and made him return the gum promptly. He then more than likely got his rear end beat! Which was the typical punishment back then. My brother never stole again!
But I really needed to impress on him the importance of his actions. Obviously, we were not able to drive back to the store.
I had to think fast!
I decided to make him write "I will not steal" 20 times. Making sure everything was legible and spelled correctly or he had to redo the whole sentence.
With tears streaming down his face he eventually finished his punishment before going straight to bed with no dessert. So before he heas upstairs, I ask him "Gerrit, now what have you learned from this?" Now his tears are really flowing and it is turning into his ugly cry. He could barely talk from the crying. What was his answer?

"That you don't love me anymore!"

God help me!




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Location:Savannah

Sick of Sick Days

9 days ago, Gerrit, my 5 year old came down with the flu! The same symptoms as most with headache, fever, body aches and just feeling lousy. Finally Wednesday he went the entire day without fever so Thursday I load him up and send him off to school. That same day Thijs started with the fever and aches. After 2 hours the school called and said Gerrit was crying and wanted to come home because he felt so terrible. Great! Now I feel terrible for making him go to school.
Luckily his doctors excuse (thanks Paris!) was good for the entire week so I kept him home Friday. Now here I was with 2 boys with the flu, at home under my feet and totally irritating the hell out of me! Nurse Mommy was wearing thin!
With the weekend brought more fever and now a nasty cough. We took Gerrit to the ER on Sunday to rule out pnuemonia and found out he had an ear infection. They sent us home with breathing treatments, antibiotics, and steroids.
Monday morning I had had ENOUGH sick! Both boys are whiney and weepy and I wasn't having any of it! I ignored my gut and sent them to school. At this point I couldn't tell if they were faking it or not. I figured the truth would come out at school.
Both of them made it the entire day but eventually came home to tears and more aches! Now they are both passed out.
I feel awful for sending them to school but I am just sick of them being sick!

Army Men

Gerrit, my 5.5 year old, is obsessed lately with playing Army and playing with little Army guys. Funny thing is my brother played with them too so I was not hesitant to buy these for him today. What little boy didn't play with Army men?

Tonight I was in search for a cool Army movie with not so foul language (This is almost impossible!) We decided on Born on the 4th of July. It has been a few years since I have seen this movie so I wasn't sure what we were getting into.
About 45 minutes into the movie, if you remember, Ronnie (Tom Cruise) goes to Vietnam. The bad language starting picking up. Then suddenly there was a major shoot-out between his platoon and the bad guys (that what we call them) Ronnie gets shot and finds himself in critical condition in the military hospital. Lots of blood, suffering death. Chaos.
That is when Eric and I decided this was just WAY too much for them (I should have known better with it being directed by Oliver Stone). We turned the movie off.
Eric then asked Gerrit "So what do you think of the military now?" Gerrit responds "I don't like it anymore. I think I will grow up to fix iPhones like you, Papa. I only like fake Army men now."

We both just laughed and gave him a GIANT hug and kiss for being such an awesome kid. :)

"Nice Ascot"

Thijs and Gerrit love whispering in my ear from time to time "Nice Ascot". If you are familiar with Toy Story 3, when Barbie meets Ken for the first time she says to him, "Nice Ascot!" (Click here for the scene, forward to :50sec)
The boys think this is hilarious and of course so do my husband and I. Recently we were flying on KLM from Amsterdam to the US and of course the flight attendants were sporting silky blue ascots. I had to point this out to my guys.

As we are exiting the plane both boys tell each flight attendant "Nice Ascot" as they walk by. Of course Eric and I are cracking up because these dutch speaking ladies have no idea what they are saying. My husband had to translate "My sons like your scarf". I am sure they thought how strange but we thought is was absolutely hilarious!