every once in a while, rory shouts 'don't get cranky!' at brian from the car when we're leaving for the day. hope it helps.

we got a christmas tree on sunday and now rory is obsessed with decorating it. at first, she was referring to the ornaments as 'instruments' and i didn't really understand what she was talking about. once we straightened it all out, she asked me about a million times 'when are we going to get out the...what are those things called again?' we placated her by getting out the christmas stockings, because, realistically, the tree decorationg thing won't happen until this weekend. brian may have to put the lights on the tree at somepoint this week to distract her a little more or she will drive us completely and totally bonkers before the weekend decorating. once we get to friday, we're probably good because the birthday shenanigans that will be happening friday and saturday should occupy her for a while.

i've started a new tactic with rory. sometimes, we try to get her to do something we want her to do by dangling a 'carrot' in front of her. said carrot can be a sweet treat she likes, a trip to the montshire museum or some other fun place, etc. today, my plan was to go grocery shopping early in the morning, then maybe go to the montshire afterwards to let her run around a bit. i'm trying to get rory to do more of her own getting ready in the morning, so after i helped her get clothed, i asked her to put on her socks and shoes and sweater, and when she was ready, we'd go to the store where (carrot #1) she could have her own cart and after shopping (carrot #2) we could go to the montshire. when she didn't do what i asked right away, i didn't panic or get frustrated. i just told her, we'd leave when she was ready, but until then, i had a few things to do around the house and i was going to do them, not wait around for her to get ready. and so i did. HALLELUJAH! i got laundry, bed changes, and even some knitting done and didn't end up exhausted by butting heads with a toddler for the whole day. it was a little unfortunate that we didn't get out of the house, but whatever, she seemed happy enough and besides the high was about 20 today. after dinner, i took alix to the grocery store and brian stayed home and got rory to bed. it may not work out so well every time, but it worked like a charm today.