At Aunt Gina's suggestion, Santa has sent one of his elves to keep an eye on the Munchkin's behavior in these days before Christmas.
The package that arrived on our doorstep was covered with stamps from around the world and a special box inside bore Santa's official seal.
Inside was Munch's very own special elf, whom she named Doodle (or occasionally calls him Google), whose task it is to watch Munch's behavior and report back to Santa every night (how else could he know who's been good or bad?) I can see how this would motivate some kids to behave extra well. Munch is an interesting one though. Overall, we've been REALLY lucky with her behavior. She is well-mannered and quiet in public (other than singing along to grocery store music), she gets along well with other kids (no hitting or other antisocial behavior), and like AudioDad, is generally content and easy-going. I'm lucky that most of her good behavior is intrinsic, because when it comes to listening to me, Munch likes to test the limits. We used time-outs occasionally earlier in the year (shortly after she turned two), but she quickly realized that if she was willing to do the time, she could do the crime. There went time-outs.
So I was curious to see if Doodle/Google would have any effect on her. (Lately our issue is that she's incredibly SLOW at the dinner table, picking at her food just to see what our reaction will be.) So far, she likes greeting him in the morning wherever he appears and checking in with him when we come home and before she goes to bed. What's a little concerning is that, as we drove home this evening, Munch told me all about how she'd be telling Doodle how naughty she was today since she didn't plan to eat her dinner when we got home. I think we're going to have to work on this naughty/nice thing a little bit more... It's a cute idea- it seems to be working better on Munch's cousin A. If you want to check it out, go to The Elf on the Shelf.
On a related note, I found out about another fun site that gives you proof of Santa's visit on Christmas Eve- check out Capture the Magic. Here's the photo that we'll show Munch on Christmas morning of Santa putting presents under our tree!
2 comments:
She's a cutie! Thanks for the links! I'm off to check them out! Have a wonderful weekend.
What I wonderful idea, I wish my kids were small again although I could probably use the idea now!!!! I really laughed when you said the part about how Viv told her Elf she was not going to eat. How Cute. Time out never worked for my kids because I had to stand and hold the door closed and I always got tired of holding the door long before they were ready to stop trying to get it open. Of course, if you asked them about this,they would deny all of it!!!!!!!!! Love Aunt Lynn and Uncle Rob
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