"JUST LAUGH"

Since Christmas break, Maddox's true personality has been coming out at school. The first half of the year he was very shy and quiet during the school day. But, so far, in the second half of the year Maddox has begun showing his true colors! He's still a good boy, of course, but he's more comfortable with his teacher and has made friends with most of the kids in his class and so he feels like he can be himself. He talks with the kids who sit next to him at his table and during carpet time and sometimes gets sucked into goofing off when he's supposed to be paying attention. Well, every day, Maddox's teacher sends home a "behavior sheet" in your child's folder. It has a star at the top and then a variety of reasons that can be checked for bad behavior beneath it. If the star is colored in at the top of your child's paper it means that they didn't get in trouble at all that day but if the star is not colored it means that your child got in trouble that day and so you then have to look over the rest of the page to find the bad behavior reason that is checked. Since Christmas break, Maddox has had two days where he hasn't gotten the gold star on his behavior sheet. Both times he has gotten in trouble for "talking or making inappropriate noises". Imagine that!! Ha!! The first day Maddox came home without a star we had a good talk and I reminded him that even when it seems like it would be really fun to disobey his teacher that he has to remind himself that that's not the right choice. He agreed and seemed to really take in all that I was saying. Well...about a week later Maddox had another day where he didn't get a star. This time, though, it was on a Friday and so I didn't see his behavior sheet right away. When we got home from school that day the boys just hung up their backpacks and we went right into enjoying the weekend. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that I decided to look through the boys backpacks and folders. Looking back, I had noticed that Maddox kept asking me throughout the weekend if I had looked in his folder yet. Obviously, now I can see that he was wondering if I had seen his behavior chart yet, but at the time I just thought he was concerned with a piece of homework or a reminder note from his teacher. On Sunday, though, as I got the boys backpacks off of their hooks Maddox jumped up off the sofa and ran into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. At that very moment...I KNEW!!!! There was something in Maddox's backpack that he didn't want me to see. Dun Dun Dun. As I opened Maddox's folder I saw what I expected to see...Maddox hadn't received a star. Uh oh! I carried Maddox's folder down the hallway and knocked on Maddox's bedroom door. He was pushing against the other side of the door trying to keep me out. I kept knocking and calmly told Maddox that if he didn't open the door he would be in REAL trouble. He smartly opened the door. Maddox came out into the hallway giving me puppy dog eyes and doing his best to stay out of trouble. Now...you may be wondering, why is this story being told under the "just laugh" title? This isn't funny at all. Well, let me tell ya. As I turned Maddox's folder around, showed him his behavior chart with a missing gold star and asked him what had happened on Friday he suddenly DROPPED TO THE FLOOR right there in the hallway and began rolling back and forth, holding his stomach in pure agony and crying "MY TUMMY HURTS!! MY TUMMY HURTS!!" Oh...my...word...!!! I tried to hold in my laughter and hold back my eye rolling as I figured out what to do (or say...) next. Eventually, Maddox and I had a really good talk but I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I retold this story to Brandon and my mom later in the day. Maddox constantly keeps me guessing and he pulls out all the stops to stay on mommy's good side!! Ha!!