Mr Smarty Pants

The tree is up! The lights are hung! Now all we have to do is wait twenty two agonizing days for Christmas to come. The upside is that I have twenty two days of using one of the most time-honored methods of parental manipulation in the book. Yes, Santa's Naughty List. This worked like a charm last year and I was really looking forward to it again this year but wouldn't you know it, Jack is starting to think a little harder about the whole Santa thing. Today Jack and Ella were playing in the yard and I heard a fight break out. Sure enough Jack comes running in to tattle (which in our house is a higher offense than anything he could possibly be tattling about.) I stopped him before he began and said, "Oh I hope you aren't going to tattle because Santa is watching you right now!" he gave me the dirtiest look he could muster and said "Mom, you think I will believe anything but you're wrong!" I wondered if someone had told Jack the truth about Santa. Then he said "I know Santa isn't watching me right now because thats impossible. Right now Santa is in the North Pole." So, he is beginning to doubt Santa's omnipotent reconnasance powers. Something tells me we only have a Christmas or two left with this kid buying it. Oh well.

It really is amazing what he picks up on. I have learned the hard way that no swear word crosses my lips without it being recorded and cataloged in his little brain, and then inevitably rears its ugly head at the most inappropriate of times. Also he has inherited his mom's photographic memory for song lyrics so I have to now censor everything that plays in our car. I realized this a few months back when I found out that Jack had announced to his sunbeam class at church that he was "bringing sexy back". We were driving down the road last week and a song came on. He yells from the back seat. "Mom, this song is SO high school." Oy Vey.