Punishments and Rewards

So I thought I would update on some happenings around here this week.  

Tori Story:

Quite a while back, while walking around Target, Tori saw a "princess" car seat.  She was so excited.  I thought that the fascination with the seat would pass, but it didn't.  She brought up this car seat repeatedly.  I kept telling her that she has a car seat and that I wouldn't buy another car seat that we don't need right now, just because it is pink and has crowns.  Weeks went by, and then we went on a little trip with Natalia, and wouldn't you know, Natalia has the car seat.  Tori was so thrilled when she saw it, and her sweet friend even let Tori sit in the car seat for the whole trip. (wasn't that nice?)  Then when we got home, Tori got out of the seat and went and sat on our front stoop and cried and cried and cried.  I could tell that her little heart was broken.   It was different then a fit throwing cry, she was truly devastated.  "What is wrong Tori?"  " Mom, how come 'talia got that car seat?  She said she didn't even have to ask for it, her mom just gived it to her?"  "well Tori, her mom said that she needed a new car seat, and so she bought that one."  "Yes, but I wanted that seat, not 'talia, she didn't even know about that seat, and now, she has the only one, now it is gone, I can't even earn it, or get it for my birthday."  (Big huge sobs....)  

So we had a little chat about how Target has lots and lots of car seats, just like Toys R Us has lots of the same barbie.  That there is more then just one.   Oh she cheered up so fast!  

"mommy, What jobs can I do to earn money for that seat?"

Well as the next week went on, she jumped at every opportunity to earn a buck.  Lucky for her we had 2 MAJOR storms that knocked piles and piles and piles of sticks out of our trees.  She spent all together over 4 hours out in the yard with me picking up sticks and putting them in piles.  It was a big job.  She also picked up dog poop twice, and once in the neighbors yard too.  She cleared the yard of toys so that daddy could mow, and 'cleaned' mirrors and windows.  She worked really hard.  Here she is after her labors this morning.

This picture was taken at like 10:00 this am.  They were both out helping pick up sticks for over an hour.  It was so hot and humid that they were dripping with sweat and yuck.  They both looked like they'd been forced to run a mile.  Tori even did all this with out eating Breakfast this morning because she had to get it done before Daddy went out and mowed.  

"Do I have enough money daddy?"

After Breakfast, she received her payment and began to count her money.  She was so excited.

"Let's see Tori,"

"YEAH!!! Thank you!  Oh, It's so pretty, daddy can you put it together?"

So lesson learned.....  If you want it bad enough, and you sweat hard enough, you'll get it.  It was funny to watch her today be SO careful with it.  making sure to not touch it with dirty hands etc...  What a funny girl.  I am very proud of her work.  

Liza Story:

Liza has been doing a lot of complaining and arguing lately.  It is really starting to cause some  problems.  On Monday night Brent was on call, so I was on my own for the  day and evening.  I find that these times are best dealt with when I have a plan, and hopefully a fun plan.   We went swimming for the first time since the outdoor pools opened.  The kids were thrilled.  We took off as soon after school as possible (see Alex Story) and had a great time.  (now this is relevant to the story)  Before we went to the pool, I cut up 4 apples.  I am pretty sure that Liza ate a lions share of those apples.  Probably darn near 3 of them.  We weren't at the pool an hour and she started up the whining for food.  After putting it off for a bit, I broke out a bag of Crasins.  She once again ate a lions share of that whole bag of craisins.    We swam a bit longer and then went inside to get showers and get in PJ's.  Since we had played through dinner hour I told the kids that we could drive through somewhere for dinner.  They chose Wendys, so after having the kid at the drive though argue with me about ordering a coke at the very beginning of my order, and then having the "manager" at the window try to communicate to me through broken english that they didn't have yogurt, I was a little frustrated.  When he told me that they didn't have yogurt, I said that's fine, we'll have the oranges then.  Well........ that is when the world began to crumble..... the sky fell inward, the earth stopped dead in it's tracks, for Liza (yes, she is almost 10, not 2) began the fit of the year.  "I don't want oranges, I want fries. "  "well, you're getting oranges (btw, she hates wendys fries and ALWAYS orders either oranges or yogurt)"  "MOM!!  Just ask the guy to get me fries instead!"  (man hands me bags through the window, not one of them has a prize in it.  So now I have to communicate that to him through cave man like movements)  "MOM!  I DON'T want oranges!"   "Liza, I am not going to try to change this, so just stop."

"Mouhm!!!"

Long story short, warnings, led to, "Okay, now you have nothing, you can't have your oranges, because you are not grateful for what you have."

More fits over the oranges, but this time because she wants them..  :-)  LOL!!! Yeah 10, not 2.

Then a warning, stop, or you'll go to bed.  Long enough pause in fit to finish her cheese burger, then kicks back up. 

Sent to bed (it was 8:00 anyway, but the other kids were still up)

Wouldn't brush teeth, wouldn't pray, wouldn't tell me good night.... still crying about how HUNGRY she was!

Left her yelling comments at me while I got the other kids fed and teeth brushed.  I ignored all comments, until she threw out this one...... I couldn't resist, it was too funny to resist having the conversation.  LOL!!!  (Keep in mind that she is yelling most of this though a closed bedroom door,)

"mom, I'm going to pass out, I am so hungry.  (pause)   MOM!!  MOM!!!................  Mom, seriously, I don't want you to got to jail."

 

"Liza, why would I go to jail?"

"If I pass out from being so hungry, people are going to know that you wouldn't feed me, and then you are going to go to jail for starving your kids."

I laughed out loud!!!  "No one is going to put me in jail for feeing you a cheese burger and putting you to bed, now go to sleep you nut!"

She woke up in a much better mood today and has been rather good today.  She bawled for a long long time last night, and she made sure it was nice and loud.  :-)

Alex Story:

So in an earlier post I mentioned something about a kids foot in a toilet.  Well that was Alex's story.  Almost 3 weeks ago, Alex decided to climb on the toilet at school and mess around in the bathroom.  (this messing around in the bathroom at school has been a bad habit of his since the first month of Kindergarten, it actually really set him off on a bad foot with his teacher for the whole kindergarten year.  We even dealt with it a touch in the beginning of  first grade)  He has lost privileges for this, he has been spanked for this, he has been in trouble so many times over it, i just am at a loss for what is going to convince this boy that he shouldn't do this anymore. 

So when I received the Email about this at 1 am, I had no idea that it had happened that day.  She sent him home with no sock on one foot, and a soggy shoe.   I didn't even notice.  I did notice however that he was acting weird, and kind of sleeked around, but Alex does that sometimes for no really good reason.  I had some time between finding out and his waking to really think about what his punishment should be.  So he was assigned a 30 minute potty time out every day, after school until school let out.  Yup, that is 30 minutes a day,  for 3 weeks.  7 and 1/2 hours sitting in my tiny little 1/2 bath off my kitchen.  Every day when he comes out, he has to come out and tell me that he will never play in the bathrooms again.  I think that it is working... I will be sure to let you know if it didn't.  He does seem to be remorseful everyday when he comes out.

( and on the positive side, I think that that 1/2 hour has helped his regularity, cuz i usually hear the toilet flush at some point during his sentence.)

Today at dinner, we all had a really good laugh, when we could hear Chinook playing with a box from dinner that was set to go out to recycling and when we looked at him, this is what we saw!  

The funniest part is that although his head was suck in the box, he was still trying to lick the side.  LOL!  what a silly puppy!