A New Plan

So while I love all my children equally, I have one who, simply put, is a brat. She has her moments where she is as sweet as can be, but for a large majority of the day she lets her bratty side shine through. Now I am hoping that this is just a phase she is going through. She is after all only 17 months old. But I do feel I need to be prepared to deal with her brattiness just in case it sticks around for a while. I have come up with a great, although mean plan to combat this problem. I plan on exploiting her complete and utter fear of mascots and other life sized costumed figures. Take a look at the effect they have on her:

This is her first meeting with a mascot where we actually discovered her intense fear. It's Grizwald the LHS bear. When she first saw him, she actually screamed and was totally hysterical. She wouldn't take her eyes off him all night long and I actually felt a little bit bad for her. My mom however was thankful for that experience because it proved to be quite a bonding moment for her and Sarah. Up until this point in her life, Sarah really wanted nothing to do with my mom. (It's hard to believe, but true). But with Griz around, Sarah did not leave her nap all night long and after this evening, she and my mom are now tight!


After hearing the story of the mascot mayhem at LHS, Craig decided he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He took full advantage of his opportunity when we went to the BYU gymnastics meet last week. This is what my big kids thought of Cosmo.

This is what Sarah thought of him. After Sarah had been watching him tentatively all night, Craig finally called him over to us. Once he got within 10 feet, she broke into hysterical sobs and made everyone around us feel sorry for her. After that, she made sure to stay still in the safety of a parent's lap for the rest of the night--with her eye on the "bear" In fact she was so bothered by him that she has been talking about that "scary bear" ever since. She never fails to mention that he went "bye-bye" though. (The picture below is actually one of her better reactions to the "bear" hanging around at BYU.)


And not to be outdone by mascots, the Easter bunny at the mall really bothered her quite a bit--though the reaction was quite a bit more healthy than it was to either of the bears.







Let's just say that Craig and I are now considering investing in a mascot costume of one sort or another because we both believe that if you can't teach your children to behave at least you can scare them into submission!