The Card System

As we plan for the arrival of little Oggie, we are having a grand time envisioning the outings we'll take him on, the toys he'll have (swords and sharks and light sabers and trains and other boy items that are completely foreign to me), and how we'll react to different situations. One "situation" that has come up is how we'll discipline little Oggie. Obviously....we have a long time before this even needs to be seriously considered but we both feel like we better start thinking about this now. We are both first borns....both stubborn....and there have been occasions where I have been described as willful (even by myself). :) We might be in trouble with little Oggie. :)

As many know, Dave and I are huge fans of the English Premier League (soccer) and if we aren't watching matches during the weekend, we are at least catching the Review Show every Sunday night. The coaches (especially the ones with the strong brogues) make us howl...the announcers with their elevated verbiage that would never be heard on a NASCAR broadcast amaze us...the players with their unbelievable strikes or pathetic dives make us cheer...the fans that sing throughout most of the matches inspire us to do likewise. And then....there are the refs. The good refs are the ones that allow play to just unfold. But the most entertaining refs are the ones who include themselves as part of the game and have large personalities. Dave will sometimes walk up to a cat and thrust his arm in the air (as if he is holding a yellow or red card) and give a penalty to the cat...who is looking at him like he is from Mars. Hahahaha.

But we got to thinking today....what a fantastic idea it would be to adopt the card system as our discipline system!!! :) The first yellow card would be a warning...little Oggie is on notice. Dave is already excited about impersonating his favorite refs and calling Oggie to stand in front of him and thrusting the yellow card in the air. :)

As in the Premier League (or any soccer game for that matter)....I am sure Oggie will plead his case and beg for mercy....
and I am sure that there will be times where he'll throw his hands up and argue that it wasn't him who violated the rules...that he was an innocent bystander....
But a yellow card is a yellow card. If there is another violation...the 2nd yellow occurs...and that results in the player...or in this case Oggie...being shown the Red Card and being "sent off". There will be infractions that are so severe that they automatically produce the red card.

And what happens when he gets "sent off"? Well...we want to designate a door in the house where Oggie will have to go put his nose on the door for as long as he is old. (If he is 3 years old, then 3 minutes) But if he moves his nose from the door, the 3 minutes starts all over again.

Dave is really on a Classic Pooh kick. I mean REALLY on a kick! And with owls being a theme of this pregnancy, we thought we would blow up and laminate the picture below where it looks like Owl is scolding Pooh Bear and put it on the designated door. Oggie can put his nose on Pooh Bear as Owl sternly looks on. :)

I know it is a long way off before we have to think about this kind of stuff and our thoughts on this topic will probably change several times....but this was just too hilarious to not mention!!!! :) You should have seen Dave acting out the dramatic protestations and pleads for clemency just like the players do. I haven't been able to stop laughing all morning. :) I even found a onesie that I've registered for that has an arm holding up a red card!!!! Perfect!! :)