Weekending it

Yay it's March!!! We made it through February. We had snow on the ground for the entire month and now things are melting and we're seeing green grass below and signs of spring in the air. Our hearts are happy. 

Sharing a little weekend recap. 

We've been working with Kip to improve his bedtime behavior. Since dropping his pacifier we've had a lot of trouble getting him to cooperate with getting ready for bed at night. Sometimes it was taking upwards of two hours. Eek! So we gave Kip some rules and opportunity to earn some stickers. Seven stickers was the goal and the reward was to go to Target and pick a toy. I know a lot of people have negative opinions of reward charts. I think of it this way...would you go to work if you weren't getting paid? Especially if you didn't particularly like your job? I think the answer is universally no. There are some tasks in life that aren't fun and unavoidable but you gotta do them. But toddlers don't get paid and they can't take themselves out for ice cream for working on something hard. They can't give themselves that "self care" everyone talks about being needed for adults. My approach is if a young child is struggling to accomplish something or exhibiting resistant behavior - try giving them incentive.

Kip was highly motivated by the idea of getting to go to Target. He earned the seven stickers quick and we saw bedtime delays plummet. On Saturday Dan and I took him for a special trip. He loved getting out and it was the first time he has been inside a store since right before the pandemic hit (nearly a year). He wore his mask, listened really well to us, and loved seeing all the options and picking his toy. 

Fortunately, he settled on a small tow truck with a tiny red truck attached. He has played with it consistently since bringing it home. We also let him pick a small toy for Ivy because throughout the whole week when we talked about earning the trip to Target, he kept saying he wanted to get something for Ivy and we wanted to encourage that spirit generosity. In order to maintain the good bedtime behavior the deal is now 10 stickers but we aren't talking about it as much and after this round the reward is removed and hopefully the good behavior stays consistent. I'll keep you posted on that.

Another highlight from this past weekend was the nice weather. We made it outside a few times and started playing in the driveway. We are really excited about this space for spring and summer. It's large and great for Kip to use his bike or scooter. We are very mindful of his sense of boundary (or lack thereof) and working really hard to enforce the border where he can play. 

Funny fact, our neighbor gave Kip that hand-me-down trike. It is really old and doesn't steer. Kip calls it a "monster truck bike" because of the thick wheels.

Also this weekend we enjoyed take-out from Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the end of February. This was the first time we've gotten take-out since moving to NJ. It was a special treat to eat a special dinner, even if that was from our own dining room. 

I'm loving that the daylight is lasting longer and we are approaching prolonged good weather. My mood instantly improves once we leave those doldrums of winter behind. Happy Tuesday!