The Ozmerican Life

This little story between my oldest daughter and myself took place about 6 months ago. We were living in our temporary apartment in Bloomington. It was a 2 bedroom plus Den. One bedroom was ours and one bedroom for the kids. We made every attempt to bring with us the smallest amount of things we could get by on for 6 months. Moving is a lot of work and being that we moved once, then six months later would have to move again...we decided there were a lot of things we could do without...one being the kids beds. We took with us just their mattresses and decided that mattresses on the floor would be plenty good for 6 months. Every night seemed like one big slumber party. This posed a few problems....we got them under control until one night......

I put the kids to bed and dug into my night time snack...Monster Cookie dough....packed neatly into bite size balls in the freezer in an easy to reach, easy to use ziploc bag......ooohhh yuuummmy!!

Shortly after that I heard them jumping on their mattress, laughing and messing around. I went in there...very serious. The phrase, "give them an inch they'll take a mile" TOTALLY TRUE!!! I promptly went in there got right in Ava's face, after all it was dark and I wanted her to see my "mom look".

Me: (two inches from her face, in my most stern look and voice...aka..."you don't want to see what happens if you don't obey" voice) "Ava, it is bed time. I do not want to hear another word." (I've also found taking out contractions from my speech also adds to the seriousness of the command.)

Ava: (while rubbing my cheeks between both of her hands, one on each side) "Oooohhh Mom! What does your mouth smell like?!?!?"

Me: "Ava did you hear what I said?"

Ava: "Yeah mom, but what were you eating!?!?!"

Me: (Getting a little frustrated and trying not to let my smile show) "Ava, never mind what I was eating, this is serious time...Did you hear what I said?"

Ava: (without even a pause, all in one sentence as fast as she could talk) "Not another word were you eating a cookie mom?"

Me: (Really trying not to laugh) "Ava, Not another word!!"

Ava: "Okay mom, you're mouth smells so good...like chocolate treat!!!"

Note to Self: Monster Cookie Dough leaves a lingering sweet smelling aroma of peanut butter and chocolate...Always brush before punishing!