Trouble Is (Or At Least Should-Have-Been) His Middle Name

Rusten has had a horrible time lately getting into food without asking. He'll find candy and sneak it, or get into the pantry and get crackers. I'm not okay with that!! And, no, I don't starve my children!

Let's take today as an example. I'm getting ready in the bathroom this morning and I walk out into the front of the house after realizing how quiet things are (though that could be partly because brother wasn't up yet!). I find Rusten and the dog finishing off the last of some holiday cookies. Are you kidding me? It's not even 8 in the morning, and you're scarfing cookies?! So we were punished for that one.....including blankie being taken away all day long. Mama's serious, peeps.

So then later, after naptime, they get a snack of some crackers and juice, portioned by mommy herself. Well, apparently that wasn't enough! I can hear a chip bag, so I go into the front room and Rusten has re-filled Reed's bowl with pretzels. How nice of him to serve his little brother first. How do you punish that one? He was actually serving someone--it was adorable. Nevertheless, he was *again* getting food without asking.

After this, I'm finishing up working in the office before we left for my parent's for dinner. It's been awhile since I checked on the angelic boys quietly watching Kung Fu Panda for the 9283749283579 time (today) and playing in the front room. Here's what I found (I'm including all the pics I took because together they show the personality of my kids):

Do you remember that tree Rusten decorated the other night with all those candy canes? Well those candy canes have been around for, say, around 4 years-ish (maybe more). I guess what happened is that the pretzels weren't enough, so Rusten snatched one of those vintage candies off the tree, helped brother into the recliner with him, and together they broke bread (or candy canes--whatever) together. Precious.

As you can maybe tell, his punishment was a photo shoot.