So, at our house, we have been using a marble system. The kids have to fill up their jars with marbles earned by doing their jobs, brushing their teeth, being kind, not getting out of bed 15 times, etc. Well, it was taking forever to fill up their jars and we all sort of lost interest. Over Christmas I heard Katie mention one of their systems and copied it or borrowed some of it. So, for FHE last night, we were discussing our new plan. The kids get seven marbles at the beginning of the week to start out with. They lose one if they leave laundry on the floor, fight, etc. At the end of the week, they get to trade in their marbles. I was asking them what they would like to "buy" with their marbles. We talked about earning quarters, extra Wii time (which I thought would probably cause Carter to forget everything else we had talked about), staying up 15 minutes late, etc. Rick, being the helpful parent that he is, suggested that they could trade in their marbles for "snuggling" with Mom and Dad. He said one marble for snuggling with Dad and four marbles for snuggling with Mom.
People, you know I'm about as snuggly as a porcupine. The word even makes me cringe. But Carter could not let it go. At first, I said, Dad was just kidding, and emphasized all the OTHER things they could do with their marbles. Carter was fixated. He heard nothing else during FHE. So, before he was going to bed, he said to me, "Mom, can we really spend our marbles on snuggling?" To which, I responded, Carter, if you really want to spend your marbles on snuggling, you can." He gave me a big Carter hug and said, "Mom, I'm going to spend all my marbles on snuggling, except one for the wii."
Fast forward to this morning. First thing he says to me when I wake him up for school, "Mom, when I asked you last night if we could trade marbles for snuggling, I didn't hear the answer." SERIOUSLY???? I repeated my prior response and he said, "well, I changed my mind. I'm going to trade one of my marbles for quarters and the rest for snuggling with you."
I had to document this so when he's a big "cool" high school kid, he'll never live down the fact that the most important thing in his world was snuggling with his mom.
11 comments:
oh carter. it's stories like these that just warm the heart. i love that kid!
and what's your non-snuggling deal? i thought the women were supposed to be the snugglers and the men the non-snugglers. call me crazy, but i thought that's how it worked. now i understand why you rolled your eyes at malia the other day when you said she was big into snuggling. got it.
Michelle, can I save up my marbles for snuggling?
NO COURTNEY!!!!
Yeah, when Courtney says "snuggle", what she really means is wrestle/smother, depending on how capable/vulnerable the snuggle-ee is.
Don't cave, Michelle. You don't want none of Coach's snuzzle. It's toxic. Trust me, I know from experience.
You're all haters. If I had it my way, my snuggles would be gentle and delightful but when you guys resist the way you do, I am have no choice but to use a little extra force.
So cute. Hey sorry things were hectic while you were here. Gary's family was somewhat unplanned, so I didn't really know what was up. Then once my family comes there is never a minute, all the time is scheduled. I'm glad I got to see you. Let me know next time you are here and I'll just have to come over to your moms and hang.
At least Rick didn't tell him about snuzzling.
First of all, I could not stop laughing that it costs one marble to snuggle with Rick but four to snuggle with Michelle. Ah la la la! That is tha most hilarious part of the whole post. Secondly, I love Carter! That kid is a legend.
I think the snuggling idea is absolute genius. Carter is an amazing snuggler and I am so grateful that he gets to snuggle with his mom - Courtney used to snuggle with me but somehow that went the way of growing up - I still keep hoping it will return someday. Anyone wanting to snuggle come on over, I used to tell the kids that without my daily hugs I would go nutty - so now you know what happened. I am not sure whether it is reversable or not but I am willing to try - any takers????
I'll snuggle with you Dee! But seriously, one of our favorite Carter-isms was relayed by my Justin after a babysitting gig. He was cracking Jake and Bella up with something but Carter just looked at him stone faced and said, "That's not funny." We still replay it in certain appopriate situations...guess you had to be there it doesn't look quite so funny in text but it's killer when Justin does it!
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