This is going to be a how do you guys reference it? A word-vomit post? Yes, that's it. Read at your own risk, amusement, whatever.

I am so FRUSTRATED. My 9 1/2 year old daughter is making me cah-razy! So you know that we do the 25 days of Advent activities for our family. It's day 3 and we have not done a single activity! Why? because of junky attitudes! And whining! And griping! And hitting! And and and!!! We even incorporated the Elf on the Shelf deal too. We thought it would be fun to act surprised about Jolly the Elf and look with the same eagerness to see what he's been up to.

Wanna know how bad it's been here?

JOLLY had to write a letter to the kids! About how seeing them behave badly made his twinkly heart all sad. He asked pretty please with sparkly snow on top to really try harder at doing better.

To be fair, Boo did try last night. (Yesterday morning is when they got the letter.) Then, this morning, it blew up. I blew up. I got so frustrated. They were watching some stupid cartoon and I didn't like the show. (Yes, we're selective about what our kids watch.) And I went ahead and let them finish the episode and told them that I did not like it (it wasn't really BAD, just not something I don't want my kids to get into.) And that I would change the channel or put it on music when it's done. I asked Boo to give me the remote and she starts stiffening up and saying, "no! no! no!" I repeated myself and blah blah blah, it just got worse. I took it from her, turned the tv off and said that we were NOT going to go chop down a Christmas tree (that was our activity for the day) and that Jolly was going back to Santa. She starts kicking her legs and saying something to the effect of NOOOOoooOOOooOOOooo!!!! "Can't I just get one more chance?"

No.

And it's not just her. Big Guy (formally known as Little Man) has taken to talking back. Not just talking back but stomping his feet and whining and crying and destroying things.

We had a family council the other night about how it wasn't fair that bad behavior affects the whole family. It wasn't fair to keep giving chances just they could get something right. I mean really? You'll be nice for a whole 5 minutes while we bundle up in the car and then start griping/bossing/whining/pouting?

ARGH!!!!!!!!! I want to kick my legs too!

Well, Hero just asked me to come upstairs to talk. I think he's going to give me a pep-talk.

And I don't want it.