Just Say No - To Chocolate?!

We had the talk on the drive to dinner: "It's a special family day...we have to remember our family rules...we are guests so no screaming in the house, no running in the house, and come to mommy or daddy if we ask you to come to us." The one rule we failed to cover, however, turned out to be the most important one of all: "Before you take candy from a stranger a relative, ask mommy or daddy if you can have it."

We arrived with our beautiful 3.5 year old Poppy and her little sis Sweet Pea promptly at the expected time. We thought we were on top of things. Baked sweet potatoes? Check. Bottles of wine? Check. Diaper bag? Check. Little did we know that the best parent preparation means nothing when met by outside forces.

First came the sweet and ever-present toy poodles. While these 8 - 10 pound dogs couldn't harm a flea, let alone a 3.5 year old girl, Poppy decided that she didn't want a real-live dog after all (she was going to ask Santa for one this Christmas). Instead, she got a nervous-excited laugh whenever the dogs came up to her. (More on this later.)

Next, I noticed that candy dishes were lovingly placed throughout the house with assorted "kisses" and "m&ms". While I wanted to remove them from Poppy's reach (note to self for next year), I decided just to "monitor" the dishes while Poppy was in the room. The only bad thing was I wasn't in the living room the entire time Poppy was in there. Oops!

Finally, and I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say, there was the fact that "well-intentioned" adults fed Poppy those kisses and m&ms. And that, my friend, was the downfall of the night. What kid can say "no thank you" to chocolate? Heck, what adult say it? Certainly not me! And I did quite enjoy those kisses and m&ms.

Needless to say, while on her "choco-high" the "nervous-laugh" around the dogs quickly escalated to ear-wretching, high-pitched screaming whenever they came up to Poppy. The scream, by the way, could be heard in any room throughout our relative's lovely home - mere walls were no match for lungs such as these. (Sorry R and C!) This was then followed by immediately reaching out and climbing up and onto the person who happened to be standing next to her. Poppy's need to get every limb off the ground and out of reach of the doggies was so immediate that she was ready to climb onto a cousin who just had surgery (sorry L!) before KB or I could get to her.

And so the night passed with our family working at high speed: eating, changing Sweet Pea, extending our thanks for a delicious meal and great company, and then making a quick getaway. Hopefully, after that, our family had a lovely evening!

We'll definitely have to work on this before Christmas!