The Allen Rules

Hello Boys,
We've had a rough go of it the last few days. It seems like every time we get into a great routine at home I get sick, go to the hospital, or something else breaks our routine. Whenever I come back you both decide to test the waters all over again. So the first two days of Mommy being back in charge it is full of screaming, tantrums, crying, etc. The last straw was when Connor wanted to eat a box of nerds. A big box of Nerds (Costco size). Where did they come from? I have no idea. I told him no, and he threw his sippy cup across the dining room. It flew all the way across the room and smashed into the wall. I can't even describe the RAGE I was feeling. It was at that moment that I realized I was yelling, you both were yelling, and we were feeding off of each other. So that night I had a conversation with your Daddy. We decided it was time for house rules that we were all going to follow. The next day I loaded you all up and we went to Target to get posterboard and markers. When we got home we had a conversation that went like this....

Mommy- "Do you guys want to color"
Boys- "YEAH!"
Mommy- "Do you want to help Mommy make a poster?"
Boys- "YEAH!"
Mommy- "We're going to make some rules."
Hunter- "NO WAY!!!!" (instant tears)

You never stop amazing me with how smart you are. I had no idea you knew what an actual rule was. We spent the next half hour making our rules. Another moment of brillance-

Mommy- "What are some things we should do at home to be good boys?"
Hunter- "Say Please!"

We came up with three rules: 1. Be Nice  2.Use A Nice Voice   3. Listen to Mommy and Daddy

We colored our poster and then left it on the table for Daddy to see when he got home. When he got home we showed him our hard work and he praised you two for a good job.

The next day after giving you some time to adjust to the rules (NO WAY!) I hung them on the wall next to the time out spot. The following conversation took place.

Mommy- "Remember the rules we made yesterday?"
Boys- "YEAH!"
Mommy reads the rules out loud and the boys are repeating after her.
Mommy- "Today if we break a rule... if we are not nice, if we don't use a nice voice, or if we don't listen to Mommy you have to go to time out for 2 minutes."
Hunter- "NO WAY!!!" (Instant tears)
Connor- Tie OUT!

And then... we had a great day. Connor went to time out twice. Only twice!

Hunter read the poster every time he walked by it. No sippy cups were thrown at Mommy and everytime someone screamed I just said, "remember our rules? We're suppose to use a nice voice." Mommy didn't even yell. When Daddy came home, Mommy was in a better mood and you two got to tell Daddy what a great day you had. So even though the rules were met with a "NO WAY!" I think we're all happy with them.

I love you guys! Thanks for being such good little boys.
Mommy