uncooperative kids

One of my kids, not cooperate… NEVER!  So we had our ultrasound on Wednesday morning and had no idea what the sex of the baby was.  The ultrasound tech was awful so it was not a great experience overall.  I only got a few glimpses of the baby and never got a picture.  All of you moms out there know this picture is like gold, a first glimpse of your sweet baby in a grainy black and white looking like an alien.  I did not care about any of this; I just wanted to see all the parts.  I cried later because I did not get to see much and blamed it on the pregnancy hormones.  I went in this morning to my regular OB appointment.  I told them about the experience and my disappointment (and about the crying) and one of the great docs there did another ultrasound for me.  It was awesome!  In the previous 3 babies I did not see all of this stuff.  I could see the umbilical cord twisting around, hands, fingers, toes… but no clear shot of the ‘goods’.  We are about 90% sure it is a girl but there is still a tiny bit of doubt.  Again, of course it is my child and would not be 100% cooperative. 

Speaking of uncooperative children, my other 2 are on the road to better behavior.  They have been bad lately.  I say bad but it is a whole lot of little stuff, nothing too major.  They have been breaking a lot of our ‘rules’.  An example of our rules are:

Don’t hit or kick

Say please and thank you

Pick up your toys

Brush your teeth

Let the dog in and out

Not anything complex, just typical 3-5 year old rules.  Can they follow them… NO.  What do you do when you need some parenting advice on matters like this?  You post something on Facebook, the Queen mum of internet advice, and get responses from all of your friends.  We have decided to do a reward system for them.  We sat down and I had the kids make the list of rules they had to follow and that in itself has helped for the past 2 days.  Every time they follow the rules they get to 'feed the fish'.  The stones they put in the fish can be traded in for rewards.  Rewards can be a trip to Gigi’s house, a toy from the store, etc.  Last night was the first night of the fish.  I took all 3 kids by myself out to dinner and they were unbelievably well behaved.  I almost thought I took the wrong kids out to eat.  I will keep you posted on how it goes.