Rosie the Elf

On Saturday Hugh gave Calder the Elf on the Shelf book. They read it and talked about it. Calder didn't seem overly excited, but we hoped he would get more excited when he saw what the elf was up to.

On Sunday morning it was my turn to get up with the boys (Hugh and I take turns sleeping in on the weekend) and only minutes after Boone and I got up, Calder crawled out of bed. As the three of us moved to the living room I remembered the elf. Or rather, I remembered we had forgotten about it. I went darting back into our bedroom to confirm with Hugh that he had told Calder the elf was coming that morning. He had. . . Not surprising since was our plan all along. Unfortunately, we completely forgot about he plan and the elf was still hidden away in the box. I quickly sent Calder back to our bedroom for some cuddles with Hugh and raced to our office to get the elf.

Here's what I came up with in 30 seconds.

So much for being stoked to start this whole Elf on the Shelf thing. WE FORGOT ABOUT IT ON THE FIRST NIGHT! Oh. Boy. This is going to be an interesting month!

Calder named our elf, Rosie. It was the second of my three initial suggestions after he couldn't come up with any. The first thing out of Calder's mouth when he saw her was, "Did you write the note, Mom?" Three minutes later, he asked me again if I had written the note and added, "Did you put her there, then?" Other questions today, "How can she walk?", "Can she see me?" and "How does she tell Santa what she sees?" Our answer to every question was "Magic." 

Yesterday morning, after some serious frustration on our part when Calder would not give Boone some space, one of us threw out, "Rosie's watching. If you keep acting like this you're going to be on the naughty list." Hugh and I seriously can't remember which one of us said it. We had both had it enough, so it could have been either! This did upset Calder for a couple of minutes, but not really enough to curb his behaviour too much. We talked about things to do to get back on the nice list and left it at that.

At supper time, Calder asked if Rosie could see him when he was outside today. We're not sure if he did something naughty or nice out there (Calder says nice!), but we told him Rosie could. When we were done supper, I caught Calder using two of my Christmas tea towels to skate around the kitchen. I told him that isn't what they are for and to put them away. When I looked over 30 seconds later he was still skating, so I sent him to time out. When Calder started complaining about it, Hugh chirped, "Rosie's watching." Calder immediately darted his eyes toward her and moved at a record pace down the hall! There were a couple of times after that where Calder almost crashed into something because he was walking one way and had his head turned another to see if Rosie was looking at him!

Hugh and I had some good giggles yesterday about Rosie, but when bath time hit, we feared we might have permanently scared Calder a bit. Hugh was in the bathroom putting Boone in the tub when Calder came to hop in. Calder didn't get undressed even after some urging. Hugh inquired and Calder told him he didn't want Rosie to see him undress. OH. NO.  Hugh told him Rosie couldn't see and that she only saw him if he was naughty or nice. We thought that explanation would do the trick, until Calder refused to get out of the tub. Hugh had another quick chat with him. We thought that was good until he didn't want to put his pyjamas! Oh. Boy. Guess I should have looked harder for a boy elf.

Needless to say, our Elf on the Shelf adventures can only get better from here. . . Right?!