July 31, 2010

Not sure I'm raising my kids right...

On weekends Ralf and I try to sleep in.  A lot of preparation goes into this: The cat must be locked in the pantry for the night.  The morning cookies for the kids must be accessible.  The shades must be drawn.  The alarm clock must be turned off.  Friends and family must be under strict orders not to call before 9AM.

Yes, it's sad but true.  We consider sleeping in until 9AM an extravagent luxury.

Once the kids wake up it's more of a half sleep than a real sleep.  We hear them moving around and going downstairs in search of cookies and parental ears tune in automatically to make sure each child adheres to the rules about the quantity of cookies per child.  So, when we hear K going downstairs too many times, one of us usually wakes up enough to yell, 'One cookie!' 

For a while K would come in, gently kiss my face and softly whisper, "Mommy, can I get another cookie?"

'Mmmmph,' I would say, which K would happily interpret as, 'Whatever, honey, just get one for L, too, so she doesn't come wake us up!'

Finally we upped the ante to 2 cookies in order to skip this little scene, which worked pretty well.

Until yesterday - I had baked chocolate biscotti the day before and they were really yummy.  Adictive, even.  K found herself irresistably drawn to them and we heard her sneaking downstairs once, twice, a third time with 4-year-old L in tow.

Ralf stood up with a resigned groan and headed for the stair, intercepting our red-handed little ones on the way back up.  Everyone froze - I know this because I was listening from bed and the stairs stopped squeaking.

K (brightly): Papa, I brought you a cookie!

Ralf (dryly): Really?  That was thoughtful of you. 

In bed I smiled proudly to myself, reflecting that my oldest girl can totally think on her feet.

Ralf: What about L, did she bring me a cookie too?

L: Mmmph hmmph.

Ralf: What's that, L?  Your mouth seems to be full.  It isnt' full of cookie, is it?

L (after a slight pause): No.  No cookie.

In bed I smiled proudly to myself, reflecting that my youngest girl is bold as brass.

We'll, um, work on the lying and stealing later.  Confidence and quick-thinking are harder to teach than honesty and trustworthiness, right?

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

On a personal note, I'd like to give a special thanks to those of you who comment regularly.  I haven't had as much time for blogging and commenting lately as I would like but I really enjoy hearing from you.  I usually try to respond to comments by commenting on your blogs, but since the folks over at Content Writing India don't have a personal blog to comment on I just wanted to say thank you for reading and commenting.

17 comments:

  1. Will you please mail me some of this biscotti?

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  2. I will do better (since they would get stale if I sent them from the Fatherland) - here's the recipe: http://honeypiehorse.blogspot.com/2010/03/chocolate-hazelnut-biscotti.html

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  3. I don't remember the last time I was able to sleep in until 9:00 am. That definitely is a luxury here!

    And I would love to try that biscotti, are you going to post the recipe for us? With chocolate it sounds delicious!

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  4. Ummm. . . "Morning cookies"? Is that a Germanism that got lost in translation that actually means "Highly nutritious wheat-based breakfast cereal"?

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  5. Morning cookies and sleeping until 9 am - perfect! :)

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  6. I never even thought about bribing my kids with morning cookies! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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  7. I'm sure you meant oatmeal.

    Your oldest will be a lawyer.

    Hee Hee.

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  8. Lying in until 9 - you are KIDDING me! This is not sad, but a true true TRUE luxury, says she using caps to get her point across.

    7 am is a weekend luxury over here!

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  9. This brings back so many memories of when my boys were small. I wish I was as inventive as you so we could get a few more minutes rest. Your right about the confidence and quick thinking; I have a feeling they will grow up to be very honest and trustworthy in spite of their addiction to your yummy biscotti.

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  10. I'd let you sleep until 11am if you gave me cookies!

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  11. Your kids are awesome, no question about it! I like their style!

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  12. I like this concept of morning cookies. I think I need to make it a tradition in our home. And that biscotti recipe sounds divine. Biscotti is one of those things that I really enjoy, but never seem to make at home. I should change that.

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  13. Thanks for the post. I think you are so right. Sleeping till 9 am on Sunday mornings is truly a luxury for me too.

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  14. I'd say you are raising two brilliant children that know how to seize an opportunity.

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  15. Meh. Chalk it up as a developmental milestone and a quick wit.

    About those cookies, we could use some over here . . .

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  16. Enjoy these moments now....before you know it you will have teenagers who will sleep most of their day away & you will be able to do the same! I am experiencing that now and while it is nice....having teenagers comes with challenges as well!

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  17. Ahhh, I remember well: the luxury of sleeping in (or at least staying in bed) while the kids finally got to the stage where they could fend for their own breakfast -- the defining moment for me was when I finally got the super-smart idea to move the cereal boxes from on top of the frig (don't ask me why?!?!?) to a shelf reachable by a Kindergartener!

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