Sometimes it is the Little Things

Summer has been a little rough around my house so far. My 5 year old twins cannot seem to get along. They maintained their cool on the 13 hour drive to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Florida and most of the way back, but ever since we have been home there has been constant fighting.

She took my chair!

He twisted my arm!

She was mean to me!

He smells!

All. Day. Long.

Trying to work from home has been a real challenge. I find myself doing a lot of writing between the hours of 9:00pm and 1:00am. It isn't that great for my sleep schedule but at least I can get something done without having to play referee.

During the day I have to find a way to distract them from themselves. Sometimes we go to the pool or a playground, but sometimes it is just the grocery store.

This is the part of the post where I admit that I bribe my children to behave in public. If they are good, they can each choose a cookie from the store bakery and eat it on the way home. If they have a fit in the supermarket - no cookie.

Yesterday we were at the grocery store and both kids (due to my genius bribery tactic) were being quite charming. Ian even had his fireman shirt on frontwards.

The post explaining why his shirt would not be on backwards in the first place is forthcoming.

We were shopping around noon. The reason we were shopping then is because it took me that long to get them out of the house. The thing with grocery shopping at noon is that a lot of people are there on their lunch hour getting something to eat. Yesterday there were some Fairfax County fire fighters at the store buying their lunch. One of them stopped my son.

Hey, I like your shirt!

He looked down and realized he was wearing a fire department t-shirt and smiled.

Mommy! He likes my shirt because he is a REAL FIREMAN!

This child, who has done nothing but fight with his sister for four entire days was smiling from ear to ear. He was in a good mood the rest of the day and it was all because of the kindness of a fire fighter.

Sometimes it is the little things.

Sarah also blogs at Sarah and the Goon Squad, Draft Day Suit, MamaPop, BlogHer and Loser Moms. This is an original post for DC Metro Moms Blog.