Sleigh or Windowless Van?

If "Santa" is good for one thing it's that he makes a great manipulation tool for children (Sorry, "Parenting By Becca" classes are full).  I'm certainly not the first parent to pull the "Santa is watching..." card--nor will I be the last.  Unfortunately your window for using this tactic is small--it only works for about a year or two and it expires once the kid turns 5...as I found out with Taytum.  To those of you with small children/babies--here is your WARNING...

A few years ago, after using the "Santa is Watching" bit, Tayter started to get a little concerned--and with good reason.

Whenever she needed to go to the bathroom, take a bath, get changed, etc., she would hesitate and ask "Is Santa ALWAYS watching?...like can he see me right now?"

When you play the "Santa is watching" game the last thing you want is for your kid to expose you for a fraud! So without putting much thought into my responses I would always say "Yep, always watching"...

Unfortunately they don't give awards for 'who can unintentionally damage their child the most amount of times'...I think we all know whose mantel would have a lot more bling on it if they did...

"Gross, so he can see me NAKED!!?!"
(crap)
"No, no, he gives you privacy when you're in the bathroom"
"Are you sure he's not watching me when I'm in the shower?"

Every once in awhile she will still ask me if it's "safe" to be naked.  Ahhhh, I'm not sure if Taytum will be more relieved when she finally figures out the whole santa thing or P.O.'d that she's been showering in her swimsuit for no reason : /

Biggest Loser--Extreme Edition

So the Tot and I are into the Biggest Loser.  Taytum got to be first to pick "her team"--she went with the Red Team for the main reason that she thought their trainer was cute (legit).  I scored the Black Team.  Since the show goes until 9pm and Tay has to go to bed before then--I give her the updates in the morning.
Well around 10:30pm Zombie Taytum came stumbling into the living room sleep walking/talking--to ease my fears I decided to give her the update then to distract her from harming me (again--I watched too many scary movies involving possessed children when I was younger--I'm not 100% convinced it wouldn't happen to me).

Me: "Tay guess what...bad news...your team lost this week..."
Tay: "oh...who did they kill?"
Me:  "Nooooobody....it's just a contest...nobody DIES"
Tay: (puzzled) "Oh...what happens to them?"
Me:  "They vote for someone to go home, remember?"
Tay: "oh yeah...so they don't kill them?"

That reminds me...I was going to look up the number for a therapist...