Jack's Wedding Day

This is an old story as it happened nearly two months ago, but it's too good not to have documented.

Jackson is smitten with a girl at school named Ruby.  They are great buddies and play together all the time.  Several months ago he told me that Ruby was growing her hair long like the princess in the movie Tangled (Disney's current version of Rapunzel) and once it was long they were going to get married.  A few days later he told me he was changing his name from Jackson to Bluejean.  Upon further questioning I figured out that he was referring to the "prince" in Tangled, whose name is actually Eugene.  (Eugene, Bluejean, same difference, right?)  Again, it was so that he and Ruby could get married.

Fast forward about a month.

While getting ready for school one morning Jack insisted that he get dressed up and wear a tie. 

"Ruby & I are getting married today!" he declared. 
"Wow!" I said.  "What will you do when you & Ruby get married?"
"We'll dance and then I'll spin her around."  he replied.

Because, duh, that's what happens in the Disney movies.  They dance and spin around!

On we went with the morning routine until it came time to brush his teeth.  Jack was fighting it and we were about to come to blows.

"Jackson," I said "You can't marry Ruby today if you don't brush your teeth.  That's gross!"
His eyes widened, he turned on his heels and marched into the bathroom.  "Oh, fine!" he said.

So for the first time (and I'm sure not the last), I used a girl at school to manipulate Jack.

After arriving at Princeton I told the story to his teacher, Alijah (the other girl at Princeton that he is smitten with) who was not a bit surprised.  According to her, the kids act like a little old married couple all the time.

A couple of hours later Alijah sent me the following pictures.

 

Turns out Ruby had dressed up too (it was her wedding day after all!).  And, by some weird coincidence, they totally matched.  Alijah took pictures of them and then they asked her if they could have a dance.  She obliged and their wedding dreams came true.

Ruby's mom and I exchanged e-mails and chuckled about it all day.

Since the big wedding day the two of them have continued their plotting.  We arrived at school one Friday in full superhero gear (it was "home toy day") only to find Ruby running around in her own cape and mask.  On "crazy hat day" during Dr. Seuss week the two of them arranged to wear their cowgirl and cowboy hats - hers pink with rhinestones and his brown.

They're adorable.  We'll sure miss Ruby when we finally head west to Colorado. 

Oh...and hopefully the next time Jack gets married he'll at least invite me to the wedding!

Teacher Appreciation

Last year, we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week by treating Jackson's teachers to some homemade ice cream cone cupcakes.  This year, we went with what we do best around here...chocolate chip cookies!

Of course, I dressed them up a bit (thanks pinterest).

The supplies were minimal, just a sheet of scrapbook paper to run through the printer, some ribbon and a cute container.

Jackson helped me eat the batter whip up the cookie dough and I assembled the final product.

Voila!

"With you as my teacher, I'll be one smart cookie!"

Jackson loved delivering them to his teachers and office staff this morning.

Thank you teachers, both past and present, for all that you do. 

To Jack's teachers and the team at Princeton, we're pretty proud of our little guy.  Of course, we like to think good parenting is responsible for some of that; however, we know that a large part of his success and development is due to you.  We thank you and we appreciate you!

The Chore Board

There's a new addition to Jackson's room.  It hangs at his level right at the foot of his bed.

We call it:  The Chore Board.

It all started with bedtime - which has once again become a war of wills.  We have a very consistent bedtime routine which ends with stories and me laying down with Jack as he drifts off to sleep.  I've created this monster, I fully admit, as I've given in to his big blue eyes and pleas to "lay wiff me, mommy" since, well, forever.  And if I'm being honest, I do it for selfish reasons as well.  It's in those few minutes of bedtime cuddles each night that I can pretend he's still just a baby instead of the fast-paced, talkative, witty and rambunctious little boy that he is.  So I lay with him.  The problem is that when I leave, if he is not already asleep, he follows me out the door and so begins the sometimes hours long battle of getting him back to bed.  It's a lose-lose.  Jack wakes up tired and cranky the next morning.  Drew & I go to bed frustrated and annoyed after battling with a stubborn child all night and getting zero adult-only time to get things done or just have a conversation.

We've tried reasoning.  We've tried tough love.  We've tried threats.  We've tried bribery. 

Then I remembered the chore board.

My cousin Robin purchased the Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart for her son while our family was vacationing at Lake Okoboji a couple of summers ago.  Jack was too young for one at the time, but I thought it was an awesome tool and made a mental note.  Just a few months later I happened across one on super sale at TJ Maxx, bought it and stashed it away in the closet. 

Drew & I decided this was a perfect opportunity to try it out.  The plan:  use positive reinforcement for having a successful bedtime (Jack gets to put a smiley face on the board - yay!) followed by a reward for reaching a predefined goal (if he earns a specific number of faces he gets a special treat - yay!).

We let Jack pick out a spot in his room for it and made a big deal about hanging up his chore board.  As we were putting it together, we realized that many of the "chores" were things Jackson is already doing so we added them too. 

Rather than being about bedtime only, it gave him a chance to earn some smiley faces for doing other tasks.  More smiley faces = more positive reinforcement.  Good plan, right?

Guess what?  It worked!

Sort of.

He LOVES putting smiley faces on the board.  He even asks to feed Ruby and take out the trash so that he can earn a smiley face.  Unfortunately, the row that represented going to bed and staying in his room all night - you know, the entire reason we started the chore board -  looked like this:

We strategically set the target number (which would earn Jack a "special treat") so that at least one bedtime smiley face would be required.  During week 1 of this little experiment he didn't have enough.

We just finished week 2 and I'm happy to say, he did it!  He started slow in the bedtime category, but finished strong on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Victory!!

Of course, we made good on our promise.  This time, his reward was a trip to Target where he could pick out any toy in the entire store.  Thankfully, he's too young to truly appreciate the freedom he had!  He didn't go for a new bike or a flat screen TV.  He chose this:

The jury is still out as to whether the success will continue.  And we definitely need to make some adjustments along the way - for example, he is certainly not going to have free reign of Target every single week should he meet his goal.  But we wanted the first "victory" to be a memorable one and hope to carry the momentum forward.

So that's the story of Jackson's special treat that I eluded to in Sunday's post.  How about you:  any other bedtime struggles with preschool-aged children or tricks of the trade for getting positive results?  We're sure crossing our fingers for continued success.