Thursday, June 16, 2011

What would you do?

Decided to go to the Japanese Gardens in K-town today. Elijah was in a funk, but we pushed onward nonetheless. Nearly there, we realized our outting was going to cancelled by rain. A half hour of driving and parking only to turn around and head back home. Bummer!

However, what would an outting be without good blog material? And a fight by the boys when they both got cranky from finding out the Gardens weren't in the cards did just that.

The boys got in a fight today over our last name. I kid you not. The fight had to do with who had that last name. They fight over whose car that is. They fight over whose drink cup that is. They fight over invisible pieces of fuzz that one boy takes from the other.

So today, they fought over who had our last name.

Isaac: "My name is Isaac John Kit___."
Elijah: "My name is Elijah Loop Kit___."
Isaac: "But I'm Kit___."
Elijah: "No, I'm Kit___."
Isaac: Stayed calm and repeated the fact that Kit___ was his last name.
Elijah: Grew incredibly upset and started sobbing. Kit___ was his last name gosh darn it.
JB: Tried to explain that they both could share that last name. Neither boy found that comforting.

Wendi (that's me) jumped in with a good idea. Ring pops! How 'bout it? A ring pop for each boy. She unwrapped one and gave it to a still-calm-but-enjoying-the-conflict Isaac. He hooked it onto his thumb and began sucking away happily.

Now, time to open the other one. She opened it to discover: no ring pop! It was a bum pop. Empty! No pop on the ring. Actually there was a tiny bit of candy on the ring which she tried to convince Elijah was adequate. He looked at her, looked at the measly little messed up ring pop and started SOBBING! How unfair! Now he was not only upset about sharing his last name, but by luck of the draw, had secured a totally lousy ring pop.

Wendi (still me) didn't know what to do. If I took the pop back from Isaac, he'd be upset. Then I'd have two kids crying. If I took it back from Isaac and gave it to Elijah, well, how fair was that?

I ended up coming up with a great solution. But before I post it, the question is: what would you do? Two toddlers. One ring pop. Two unhappy boys due to our field trip being cancelled.

Suggest away! I'll post what I did under the stars below after I get some comments!

*****

Thanks for all the good ideas! Unfortunately, a ring pop cannot be halfed. It would break into a bunch of pieces. I ended up busting out a fruit snack. Offered it to Elijah. When Isaac wanted one, I told him he'd have to give up the ring pop for his fruit snack, which he willingly did. They then moved it back and forth and shared it based on what other food I could pop out! Worked out pretty okay. :)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could they take turns with it and then it be a lesson on sharing ring pops as well as last names?

denise said...

1. one gets to own the ring pop and one gets to own the last name
2. Give one gum :)
3. Since both parents are in the car, stop at a gas station and get a candy for Elijah. Painful to spend the gas price money but peace in the car is priceless.
4. one lick for you, one lick for me
5. after ring pop is half gone, the other one gets it

Jenny said...

Yep, I would break that sucker in half and make them share!

Dana said...

I have 4 kids and the fight over the last name made me giggle a little bit! That has to be the cutest thing to fight over! I just explain to our children our shared last name is what binds us in the eyes of others as a family unit and how wonderful and special it is to belong to each other and share that what is precious to us all our last name. We love being the Lees and having our children referred to as the Lee kids! As for the ring pop problem I would probably just buy another one and avoid the meltdown at all costs!

Joy Z said...

I would probably stop at a gas station and buy another or if I had gum, I would offer that as a peace offering.

Judy Woodford said...

Half it!!!

Kristi H. Hunt said...

I would take that Ring Pop and Mom would eat the Ring Pop and the last name is mine too! Then if that did not work I would join in the sobbing with the toddlers!

TAV said...

i cannot imagine. this story made me smile, though!

Anonymous said...

Soooooo what DID you do?

Wendi Kitsteiner said...

I added it to the end of the post.