We’re finding that with this parenting thing we have peaks and troughs with who has dominance in the family. Mostly it’s us. But every now and then Jaxon up’s the antes and it takes a week or two to figure out how to deal with it.

So the last week he’s totally had it over us. But tonight I think we finally got it back (for now)

He didn’t eat his dinner. And he didn’t ask to leave the table. And normally, he might get away with that and maybe even get some kind of snack later on if he was hungry.

But tonight, we made a point. He got sent to his room twice. Preferring to play with Mack and Lightning McQueen than sit at the table with us.

In the end, he didn’t eat his dinner. But we made it very clear that after dinner there would be nothing else. And if he got hungry, then we would reheat his dinner for him.

I locked the fridge, I shut the pantry door. But two hours later when he found a bag of tiny teddies somewhere and wanted them I refused. I reheated his dinner.

He ate it.

Control. Bring it on Jaxon!

Obviously I still have a long way to go to perfecting this art.

But I’m having fun.

http://www.vimeo.com/9017215

http://www.vimeo.com/6030631

I must admit, that there was a little bit of guilt on my part, when the whole Dad getting stuck with the animals thing happened. A dog is for life, not just for Christmas… that kind of thing. I felt really bad that originally we’d just intended for him to have them while we lived with Nanny and Poppy and then all of a sudden we’re accepted to rent a house that doesn’t allow pets and he’s left with them.

We offered to find them all new homes. It wasn’t what we wanted but I wanted to make sure he got the chance to say, no, I can’t have them all.

But he wouldn’t have it. And now that I think about it, and see just how much he LOVES Dookie…I don’t think we were ever going to get them back.

Now Dad tells me that the minute Dookie first jumped out of our car when we arrived back from Queensland he KNEW this was his dog. He says that Dookie came bounding up to him and though we couldn’t hear it…Dookie was yelling out “Daddddyyy I found you!”

So if in a year, we move and we’re able to have them back…I don’t think I’d have the heart to separate them. Dad didn’t think he would ever have another dog after his last two Marley and Max died. He didn’t think he could love another dog as much as he did those two. But now he says that Dookie will be his last dog. And in a way, I’m glad I gave that gift to him. Dad, like me…has always loved dogs and from my point of view, they have made his life richer.

Dookie is in good hands.