You better watch out. You better not cry.

Since Monday, the limits have been set with the Halloween candy around here. A day of indulgence was allowed initially, but now I'm cracking down. I let the girls pick one piece to have with their lunch and dinner. Maggie caught on pretty quickly and hasn't balked much. Claire, on the other hand, is not too happy about this. Today after eating her mini box of Milk Duds at lunch, she was asking for more candy. I told her no more candy and assured her she could have more at dinner. (Not that she has any concept of delayed gratification at this point.) Well, she goes into full meltdown mode. Screaming and thrashing in her booster seat while proceeding to pull the table cloth off the table. This quickly escalates to include throwing her remaining lunch on the floor. I promptly remove her from her seat and tell her lunch is over. Claire then heads to the island, where the pumpkins are sitting, and starts hanging and trying to climb up to reach them. After many unsuccessful attempts, she throws herself to the ground (finding the plushest area rug in the kitchen first) and starts kicking and thrashing about. When this does not produce the results she wanted, she comes over and starts trying to hit me and again pulls the table cloth off the table. I firmly repeat "no more candy" as much for me as for her. The screaming and thrashing continue.

Meanwhile, Maggie is happily sitting next to me eating her turkey sandwich and watching Claire's every move. At one point, I look over at Maggie and her eyes are wide! She has an expression on her face that's a mix of sadness and fear. On the verge of tears she says, "I think Santa's not going to be able to come 'cause Claire's not listening to you!" And then she adds, "If Claire doesn't listen to you, Christmas won't come!" I put my arm around Mag and assure her that Christmas will definitely come and thank her for being such a good listener today. The funniest part is, I have only resorted to the "Santa only comes for good girls" form of bribery one time. I guess it left an impression!