I now crown myself MOTY

First words out of Alex's mouth this morning: "Morning, Mom! Can I have my cookie with breakfast?"

An aside, for the moment: I have now figured out a way to get Alex to behave like a normal kid when we go out to dinner. I would suggest drugging him, but that might be illegal. Although I might want to check on that... Anyway, so yesterday my parents kidnapped him and took him to the play area at the BX on base, and we met up with them at the mall where he got to wander around for another almost-two-hours before we met up with our friends Scott and Becky for dinner. Midway through dinner I looked at Alex and realized that I had had almost 20 minutes of straight actual honest-to-god listening to conversation, without having to correct, admonish, remind, ask to sit down, or any other constant nagging of Alex. And I'm thinking, what the hell is wrong with my kid, what did somebody slip into his corndog and can I please get some more of that?

So I grabbed the little snot, gave him a big hug and a kiss, and over his head mouthed to Scott, "What's wrong with him?" The magic formula? ALL DAY EXERCISE AND NO NAP. It can be done! We CAN tire him out! Holy shit, it's only taken us four years to figure it out, but it CAN be done! Unfortunately it's about as good for him as those aforementioned drugs. Dammit.

So back to the cookie. See, last night at dinner, he wanted dessert. He was so quiet and good at dinner, I wanted to stuff sugar down his throat to reward him for it. However, I do have my limits - I didn't want to get dessert because their desserts are huge, and much more sugar than my overtired four-year-old needed in his system at that moment. So I told him we'd get something on the way home. Thinking we'd stop by DQ for a little mini cup of ice cream. But then I realized, NO, DQ is closed for remodeling. So after we got home and I had forgotten about it, he reminded me (after brushing his teeth) that I had promised him dessert. My solution? Because I often forget that my son remembers EVERYTHING (especially involving food)? I told him he could have a cookie with breakfast in the morning. Thinking he would forget. You see how well that worked out for me.

Oh, and then! This morning he went back to preschool for the first time in two weeks. (Mommy was ready for a BREAK. SO NOT CUT OUT FOR STAYING HOME.) And I thought, he hasn't had McDonald's in forever, so I'll get him a special treat for breakfast. Mind you, fast food for Alex involves one item, usually a burger, that's unhealthy, and milk and fruit. My little healthy eater, after I told him we were going to McDonald's, says, "Remember, Mom, I love fruit salads. Don't forget my fruit salad."

He made up for the cookie. :-)