Yesterday while Qade was busy with school, Myles invented a little game for himself. He’d run across the living room with his arms full of blankets and animals. When he got to the beanbag strategically placed in the middle, he’d jump over it and “release” his armload. He told me that the beanbag was a bomb and all the stuff got “bombed up” but that he didn’t get bombed because he jumped over it and didn’t touch it. I couldn’t exactly figure out how the stuff he carried got “bombed” when he did not, but it worked for him. The most hilarious part was that when his stuff got bombed he would yell to himself, “On, on, carry on!” as he ran to the other end of the room. 😀 I was SO humored by this! I have no idea where he got that phrase, but it was pretty funny how he chose to use it.
I was lounging on Ella’s new “big girl” bed yesterday afternoon. For a cheap IKEA mattress it actually is pretty comfy! 🙂 Ella decided, because of course she was lounging with me, my constant shadow, that we should read a book. So she got the little “Night Before Christmas” board book. Stuart hates it when she brings him this book to read. I’m pretty sure she knows it too because it’s ALWAYS the one she chooses when he offers to read her a book. 😉 Anyway, at first she was “reading” it to me. The funny thing was every time Santa appeared in the picture she would yell, “Pi-at!” Apparently Santa is a pirate. 😉 Then she got tired of reading and it was my turn. So I began in, “Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house…” only to be interrupted by frequent yellings of “PI-AT!” 😀 Though I finally made it to the “Dash away, dash away, dash away all.” part and “pi-at” changed to “Dash away!” Ha ha! She’s a funny goob!
So I mentioned the little chat I had with Qade about his incessant whining about school yesterday morning. It’s a tip I got from that one book…. who’s title I can’t recall right now. It’s about talking to your kids in a calm moment about an “issue” that’s been going on. Telling them their expected behavior and setting down the consequences and having them agree with you about it all. So, rather than a negative consequence this time around, I told Qade that I knew he could do school with a happy heart, and that the days that he did he would earn iPad play time. If he chose to whine and complain he would lose that privilege. He acknowledged it all and put forth a HUGE effort at compliance yesterday. It was very apparent that he was really really trying. It carried over to other areas of the day as well. If I asked him to do something I could see the struggle as he wanted to whine, but would pull himself together and say, “Yes, ma-am” instead! Good job, Buddy! He did earn himself some iPad time!