A Halloween Limerick

There once were two very cute boys,

One could not eat wheat, milk, or soy,

So he said "Trick or Treat,"

and collected his sweets,

and traded them in for cool toys!

Oh, Ellen, don't let me down...

I was feeding my Twitter addiction last night and my heart stopped for a second when I saw a tweet from the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Ellen, who I ADORE, is having a contest to find the kid who is the biggest Harry Potter fan.

Could this be any more perfect?

I totally entered L. I mean, what other almost-3-year-old can tell you about each of the characters ("Hagrid is big," "Harry Potter is a wizard," "Bellatrix is a bad girl," and my personal favorite..."Dumbledore's got style")?

What other almost-3-year-old insists on falling asleep to the Harry Potter soundtracks and then hums them throughout the day while he plays?

What other almost-3-year-old knows the titles to all six movies and requests them by name?

What other almost-3-year-old has a magic wand that he's loved so much that he already needs a new one?

What other almost-3-year-old is more excited about his Harry Potter birthday cake than his presents?

The future winner of Ellen's contest, also known as L, that's who! I'm thinking positively that soon, Ellen's producers will be calling us and flying us to Hollywood. My dreams of meeting Ellen will finally come true! And I will get discovered! Er...I mean, L will win the contest and that's all. Ahem.

Cross your fingers that you'll get to see us on Ellen...and that it's during the summer so that there are no work conflicts! (Although if it meant I got to meet Ellen, I'd consider quitting my job. Just sayin'.)

Stay tuned....

Wordless Wednesday: Channeling Harry Potter

Behavior modification at its finest.

I have noticed lately that L has been extra wild at home; borderline aggressive. I have also noticed that when I pick him up from school, he seems out of control. Granted, a couple other little boys do too, but it had been bothering me a bit.

I called his teacher the other day and asked her opinion on his increased aggressiveness. Slowly, she agreed that yes, indeed, his behavior had worsened a bit.

Before she could continue, I rambled, "Oh, I just know it's the Singulair! I called the doctor about it and they swear there are no side effects, but a few other moms have agreed with me about this too, and I want to take him off of it, but when I just didn't give him one dose, he had a major asthma attack the next day, and, oh, I just don't know what to do!"

When I finally stopped to take a breath, she gently responded, "Um, I really don't know that it is just the medicine. Unfortunately, we have a couple of friends in the room who are instigating this behavior and a few other little boys like L seem to be feeding off of it. "

We went on to discuss negative peer models and once I told her that I deal with that at my job too, she loosened up even more. She explained that if she put the main culprit in "uh-oh time" every single time, he'd never get to participate in the class activities at all, and she'd never get to teach.

I told her that she was preaching to the choir and I pondered on the weirdness of being on this side of things as the parent instead of the educator.

I decided to have a heart-to-heart with L. I sat him down and asked him about a student in particular who I happen to know has been an instigator in his room in the past. He told me that indeed, this child hits and kicks "all duh time."

And at that moment, I kid you not, divine intervention kicked in. I heard the words coming out of my mouth without any knowledge from where they came.

"You know, Lo, it sounds to me like he acts just like Voldemort. (For those of you non-Harry Potter fans, Voldemort is the villian in the movies.) You don't want to act like Voldemort, do you? "

"Noooo," L answered, quite seriously.

"Well, I think you need to act like Harry Potter at school. You need to be the good guy. You need to be gentle, and kind, and use nice words and nice hands!"

"Yeah!" L chimed in. "He is just like Voldemort and I make good choices like Harry Potter!!"

When I brought him to school today, I told his teacher about my epiphany and encouraged her to bring Harry Potter into the mix too. She loved the idea and told me she'd try it.



I called a few minutes ago at lunch time to see how he was feeling (due to the fact that he had yet another middle-of-the-night asthma attack last night) and as an afterthought, asked about his behavior.

His teacher's response? His behavior had markedly improved and the one time he did get too rough with a friend, he was extremely remorseful, crying big tears and asking for a hug.

I swear, if this works, I'll be joining the Harry Potter Fan Club. Heck, I'll become the president.

"Expecto Patronum!"

You know your two-year-old watches too much Harry Potter when:

*he can pronounce spells from the movie better than you can

*he explains Harry Potter to his teenage cousin so well that she says that she understands the movie without ever seeing it

*he not only sleeps to songs from Harry Potter but can explain what exactly is going on in the movie during any given song

*he turns everything....a Sharpie, a straw, a eyeshadow brush...into a wand

*he gets embarrassed when you catch him gazing at a photo of his crush, Hermione, and then says, "Mommy, she's just so pretty."

....and last, but certainly not least.....

*he remarks, "Santa looks just like Dumbledore!"