Brilliant Moves

There are times as a parent you are just the opposite of Brilliant. Commenting on Katie's blog tonight, I remembered one of those times.

When Monsters, Inc. first came out, Kiddo was a toddler. My folks and I took her to see it. She loved the movie, had a blast watching it. And then we went home. She had a nightmare that Randall (the villian, in case you haven't seen it) was in her closet. I found some "monster killing spray" (water in a spray bottle) and sprayed the closet to chase monsters away. I also had to spray under the bed and everywhere else in her room, my room, the bathroom, the halls ... she drew pictures of Randall (as best she could) and said he was in her closet nearly every night.

It continued for months.

Not kidding.

The "monster" stories stopped.

Then she asked for it for Christmas.

*sigh*

I am a sucker.

I bought it.

*sigh*

More spray.

She outgrew it eventually. We still have the video, but I think I'm going to hide or sell it before Mojo gets to that age ...

Another brilliant move I made was when she was about 3 and kept shrieking at me "MOMMY!" all the time, several hundred times a day. I finally lost it and yelled back. "I'm not mommy anymore! I'm changing my name to JOE!" She cried hysterically until I apologized and cuddled her and apologized some more. Oddly enough, later on one of my good guy friends I met on a singles website (when I was still single) was named Joe, and he is still one of her favorites.

Let's think. I know I made a brilliant move recently. Something about ... OH, yeah. Daddy grounded her from movies, TV, videos, everything because she hasn't been doing her homework. I accidentally let her watch a movie with me yesterday. She is still grounded. *sheepish look*

It's kind of pointless to nag your kid to put her laundry away when *yours* is still in the clean clothes basket. Or clean her room when you can't see the floor in yours. Or clear the table from her breakfast/lunch/dinner when there's nowhere to put the dirty dishes in the kitchen. Thankfully, going part time has freed up my actual time during the day as well as brain power and emotional strength, so I've been able to do a few things around the house the last couple days. Woohoo!

Anyway. She's turning out okay, although she has a few funny quirks. You could call them twitches maybe ... I guess reminding myself of the wise things I've done and still do with her made me excited to warp Mojo as well. Just not with monsters.