The UPS Man Returns

in another form.

Do you remember my story about the day Gabbie wouldn't sit down to get buckled in her carseat and I told her about the UPS man?  If you don't remember it, you can relive this moment HERE.  It's one of my personal favorites.

Fast forward to the present.  Kiernan has entered the terrible twos with a vengeance.  We have begun implimenting time outs on a regular basis.  However, we are finding that "the force is strong with this one."  He is more stubborn than the first one and he knows it.  Uh oh...

One day, I braved the supermarket with the kids after Gabbie's swim practice.  This flirts close to naptime and I knew I was risking it but we were in desperate need of food.  The major problem is that Kiernan is not the dream shopping child that Gabbie was.  After about 1-2 minutes, he is already asking to get out of the cart so he can run around.  When I say run around, I mean RUN around like someone set on fire complete with screaming if he sees fit.  This of course gets the first one riled up and then I quickly become "that mom."  You know, the one with frazzled hair, on her last nerve, screaming at her darling savages all while trying to remember the grocery list that was ever so carefully concocted in her head.

Jolt back from that vision, and NO Kiernan was not being released from his cage.  But the question was, how do I keep him in the cart while quickly putting out the small fire of fury building inside him?

Then it hit me...The UPS truck!

Now neither the UPS truck nor the guy were anywhere near the cold cut section of our supermarket, but I could apply the same strategy. 

Time to put it into action.

Quickly looking startled, I say...

"Oh no!"
Gabbie turned to look in the direction I was,  "What Mommy?"
Trying to get Kiernan's attention(he's crying at this point)  "OH NO!"
(Got him.)
"There's a man over there who is looking for little boys who won't sit down."
Kiernan quickly whips around to look for the man.
There wasn't really a man at that moment, but thankfully the store is packed with grocery clerks and sure enough one came around the corner.
In a whispered voice to Kiernan, "There he is."
Kiernan with a slightly quizzical and cautious look on his face,begins to put his bottom down in the seat.
At this point, Gabbie was already on to me.  I had filled her in on the UPS man a long time ago, so when I winked at her, she knew what I was up to.  My smart girl.
In a hurried voice I said, "Quick Kiernan sit down before the man sees you standing up."
Kiernan in his own cautious whisper, "He's over there."
"I know.  Stay seated so he doesn't come over here."

I had him hook, line, and sinker.  Every corner I turned, if he started to fuss, I would whisper, "There he is."  Thankfully it was a quick trip and we were out of there before he figured things out.

Once again, scaring the bejesus out of my kids works.  It's not one of my prouder mom tactics, but hey, a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do, especially when dealing with an extremely stubborn two year old.