tonight was a rough night. we had to pull the santa card. nothing major, just our typical problem of not listening. as i was trying to put gillian to sleep, i turned to john and said give her a kiss. he then proceeds to run in circles around the room. i told him no and repeated my request. he then jumps into the rocking chair. we have told him numerous times that the furniture is not a toy and that we should not use it as a jungle gym. jumping on the chair was the last straw. i sent him into his room while i put gillian to bed. i got into his room an found him pouting on his bed. “mommy, i don’t know why you yell at me!” i pointed out the reasons and he agreed that he was wrong. i asked him how many times we have told him to not jump on the furniture. he said “like 7 times.”

we told him that buddy (our elf on the shelf) could hear everything going on and that he would tell santa. as soon as we mentioned santa he got sad. he said “but mommy, it’s hard to be good. gilly makes it hard.” this is not the first time we have heard this excuse. john told mimi that gillian makes it hard to be good. i said john you cannot blame this on gillian. she did not tell you to run around the room or jump on the chair. “mommy, gilly wants to be by me. and she makes me do crazy things.”

i finally got him in his bed and snuggled next to him. we talked about being good for the next couple of days because christmas is almost here. he got sad again and said “i think santa is only going to bring me one present.” well the santa card worked. let’s see how good he is over the next couple of days.