Working Man

A Big Boy needs his own work ID, doesn't he? Now, Alex is just like Daddy. He tells me that he needs to take Diego Car to Greenburgh, where he has to go to work.

Wow, I never thought Big Boy Boot Camp would work that fast!

Thursday, August 5

A Special Event

POOPIES!

Alex. Potty. Mater.
Excellent.

Thursday, August 5

1...2...3 Musgik Please!

Alex had his first Stompers class at J. Tumbleyou Tumbles today. The teacher's name is Kelly and she was just fantastic. There were only three other children in the class with Alex, but one older girl, Dylan, was particularly sweet and polite to him.

Alex wasn't too into following along with the class, but he was sure happy to be in a class - or, really, at J. Tumbleyou Tumbles. He often ran off from the class to play on the fort or climb on the soft blocks and beanbags. I'm hoping he learns to pay attention a little bit better as our adventure in Big Boy Boot Camp continues through August.

Given that it's Tumbles...probably not.

Wednesday, August 4

Wheels a-turnin' and it makes me grumpy!

Yesterday, I had to coax Alex to come to CVS, which was unusual. Normally, he can't wait to get there to see the toys - and, of course, demand some. I had to pick up his Big Boy Boot Camp poster which had been delivered to that store yesterday morning.

After I'd picked up the poster at the photo counter, I checked out some craft supplies to see if I could get any ideas about mounting the poster. This section is right near the toy section. On our way in, Alex had already grabbed a shopping basket. Sure enough, he loaded up a toy he's wanted for a while. It's a fire engine/firefighter collection.

I left the paper section with no ideas for mounting and told Alex we were leaving. He headed towards the counter with the fire engine toys in his basket. I grabbed the box of toys and placed it back on the counter. That sent Alex into a crying jag.

I told him that I understood why he was upset, but we were in Boot Camp now. All toys must be earned. On our way down the street, I continued to explain to him that he had already earned some pretty cool toys that day and he had lots of opportunities to earn more in the coming weeks. I offered to substitute the CVS fire engine collection for the Playland fire engine as a Big Prize. He wailed. 'No! No prize! It's a regular toy!'

I told him that he seems to like EARNED toys better than he likes gift toys. He said that wasn't true. 'No! I like regular toys! I don't like prizes!'"

"Oh, really?" I asked "Then why is it that you SLEEP with the earned toys and always want them with you? I saw you. Last night you slept with the traffic sign you earned. Today, you brought the ice cream truck and the snake with you in your backpack. I think you like the earned toys better than regular toys."

He went quiet after that. He stopped his argument about earned toys being no good. In fact, he went totally silent and folded his arms. He told me to not hold his hand, or his arm. He wrenched his forearm away from me while we were trying to cross a big intersection. At the other side, he cried that I'd hurt his arm. I told him that >I< hadn't done that. He did. If I make a mistake, I apologize, but that one wasn't MY mistake. It was his. I took his other hand so that he could nurse his "hurt" arm.

He continued to be grumpy for the next few blocks and then all was forgotten.

Hmmmmm, grumpy when he knows I'm right, perhaps? I can see it in his eyes when he earns a prize. I know how proud he gets. Mamas know these things.

Tuesday, August 3

Let's Take the Shovel!

Alex and I headed off to the Bronx Zoo. He's been asking for a trip there for months, especially when he sees the 61 bus go by. ('I want to go to the Bronx Zoo! Let's get on the bus!')

We took the train that day, because as convenient as the 61 might be, it's also a lot slower. Alex excitedly told the conductor that we were going to the Bronx Zoo as he gave him his 'ticket' (receipt) to punch. We had a lunch at Pete's Cafe, where I used to go when I was in college. Alex wanted the pancakes, but he didn't seem too interested in eating the pancakes. Maybe I shouldn't have cut them up for him. That seemed to cost his interest in it all.

When we were approaching the entrance down Mosholu Parkway, he was dancing and singing. 'Bronx Zoo! Bronx Zoo! We're going to the Bronx Zoo!' We showed the entrance ticket booth operator our membership card and off we went. I told Alex that I would like to start out in Wild Asia this time, because it seems like we're always getting there just before it closes. We would take the shuttle, I told him."
The walk to the shuttle was a tad much to ask, however. One must walk past the sea lions, with their new baby; the children's zoo, with its tantalizing playgrounds; the monkey house and a cafe. That happened to be a day in which a lot of day camps came to the zoo as well. Throughout it all, Alex kept asking where the "shovel" was. By the time we got to the shuttle station, the line was really long. Alex was a trooper for some of the wait, but eventually wanted to give up.

"We'll take the shovel another time." he told me.

We stopped for some water at the Dancing Crane cafe and I noticed that it was getting close to 2:00. I warned Alex that Quiet Time was approaching. This would be the ultimate Big Boy Boot Camp challenge when it comes to the Quiet Time skill set. Could Alex take "Quiet Time" at the Bronx Zoo?!?

I took us through the Butterfly Garden (which Alex calls "Butterfly Land") for its soothing music and quiet enclosed pond setting. Alex wasn't too thrilled to have butterflies flying all around him, but it seemed to work. We got through the garden and to a shady spot on the grass. I had promised Alex that Big Boy Boot Camp rules remain in effect while at the zoo. He still gets a treat for observing Quiet Time. He asked to see the treat I'd brought with me. It was a special zoo treat zebra lollipop! He agreed to Quiet Time.

Alex laid back on me for a whole 30 minutes. He nearly fell asleep more than once but kept forcing himself awake, afraid that if he did he'd wake up in his bed instead of the zoo. Sleeping wasn't going to happen. But he was a very Big Boy who did Quiet Time who won the lollipop! (Which he traded in for a box of raisins when he didn't like the taste of it. Oh well.)

"The shovel! The shovel!" he cried each time he saw a utility cart. We'd have to get to Wild Asia to be able to ride it, but instead, Alex wanted to go to the Dora the Explorer 4-D experience. It was an 8 minute 3-D movie with touch sensations, like splashing water and blowing winds. Alex was NOT pleased with the 3-D movie, which looked like it was coming at him and which made him feel like he was really moving through the sky in the plane. When the water from the ocean splashed on us, he was done. Poor little guy started to cry and I snatched his glasses off. At least I could help by making the movie flat again.

When the film ended, Alex couldn't get out of there fast enough. "That was a grown-up movie." he told me.
I tried to talk him into a walk through the African exhibit, but he didn't care for the giraffes. "They're too far away!" he declared. Actually, they weren't. And they're giraffes, for pete's sake. They're HUGE! How close do you need to get to them? He wanted to pet them, like he pet the sheep and goats in the children's zoo. No petting the giraffes? No more African exhibit! Let's get to the Bug Carousel!

He chose a grasshopper (or maybe it was a cicada) to ride. He chanted "Up! And down! Up! And down!" I told him that he was hopping along with the grasshopper.

Afterwards, he still wouldn't walk towards Wild Asia. Instead, he wanted to go back to where the cafe was. I agreed that we both needed a snack. We stopped at the Bronx Zoo store where he got a snapping tiger puppet. Then he tried to feed the tiger some leaves. At least it's a vegetarian tiger. No worries having it at home then. We had our snack, which was shared with the tiger because Mommy had a salad - and tried to finally head off to the shovel...er shuttle.

It was nearly 4 PM now. Would we even make it?

We made it! We caught the very last shuttle to Wild Asia. "We're on the shovel!" Alex cheered. We had only 5 minutes to spare to catch the last monorail through Wild Asia. We dashed through the exhibit to catch it.

"Is this the mono-trail?" Alex asked? I said it was. "This is like a train?" he asked? Yup! He wasn't impressed. He wanted the shovel. At least he got to see some elephants during the ride.

Once again, we were at Wild Asia while the zoo was closing. We still couldn't see all of the exhibits. And now we had a long walk back to Fordham. But as we got to the shuttle station, I saw that the line was really, really long. I saw one woman be able to walk off with a rental stroller, so I asked a staff member at the station about it. He let me use the stroller.

"Yay!" Alex cheered! He was so tired, he couldn't get into that stroller fast enough. I pushed it through Africa and North America, all the way to the sea lion pool.

"This is MY shovel", Alex said several times on the way back.

Tuesday, August 3

Prizes Galore!

Thankfully, Alex's prizes arrived this afternoon and CVS phoned to let me know that his poster chart is ready for pick-up. This morning, however, I had to award two prizes from the Melissa & Doug auto collection I bought in Trotta's yesterday.

Alex slept in his big boy bed and did so without having a bottle of milk before hand. He won two prizes this morning for those two, since they're two different skill sets. Then, this afternoon I let him watch me sort his newly arrived prizes from Oriental Trading. I put them in a wooden chest. All together, they formed a mixture of plastic rainbow slinkies, yo-yos, small gliders, stampers, rubber balls, plastic cars and planes, wooden tops and various other goodies.

There was some objection that he couldn't have the prizes now. In typical Alex fashion, he didn't argue the rules of the game, but rather the categorization of the rewards. So, he argued that a certain plastic link snake he liked wasn't a prize. He made the same argument for the whole collection of plastic cars.

After I was done, I declared it was Quiet Time and told him that for keeping it, he could win a new lollipop (that arrived today as well). For NAPPING, well, then he wins a prize. Instead of a temper tantrum, I got - gasp! - cooperation! He gladly got into his pull-up and into his Big Boy Bed. He asked for his Lorax book, which he wanted to read by himself. I asked him if he wanted a sippy of warm milk and he said 'No.'

I reminded him that he wins the lollipop for Quiet Time, but that he should try to close his eyes and nap for a prize. He napped! I had to wake him up at 3:15!

He won TWO prizes for that. The first for napping. The second for giving up the bottle. He choose the helicopter he'd spotted in the original package and the plastic link snake. He's still enjoying his "Hmmmm...banana!" lion lollipop right now.

Congratulations, Alex! Next challenge up - Quiet Time at the Bronx Zoo tomorrow. I told Alex that I would bring prizes with me. If he tries to use the potty at the Bronx Zoo and obeys Quiet Time/Nap Time there, then he gets a prize. Good thing the place is huge and it will be easy to make him tired.

Monday, August 2

Big.Boy.Boot.Caaaaamp!

It started today. We don't have the prizes yet and we don't have the poster yet, but we started it anyway.

The game is this:

Alex has to accomplish four sets of Big Boy skills; daytime potty training; better sleep training, including napping and sleeping in his Big Boy Bed; sleeping without a pre-nap/bedtime bottle; and various self care skills such as dressing himself or picking up his toys.

These skill sets are represented on a chart. For each week, Alex will have a daily tracker in his room. For an eight week period, the week's average will be tracked on a giant poster.

Effort to get the skills right gets rewarded with a smiley face sticker. A collection of stickers for consistent effort wins a small prize.

A half-way point on the skill wins an edible treat. For example, peeing in the potty will win Gummi Bears or Graham Crackers, etc.

A full skill performed wins a prize. Sleeping on the Big Boy Bed. Sleeping without a bottle. Napping during the day. Keeping his underwear dry all day. Dressing himself to the best of his ability. Picking up his toys. Etc. Each of these wins a star sticker on his charts.

At the end of a 4 week period, Alex will be awarded a trophy for each skill set in which he's earned many stars in a row. The trophy will be labeled for which skill it is and he earns a Big Prize.

For August, the prize choices are Spencer, Hiro, Victor and Kevin (all Thomas wooden railway series trains).

For September, the prize choices are a ride on the Pioneer at the South Street Seaport, a ride on the W.O. Decker at the Seaport, a big fire engine from Playland or a tricycle. The idea is that he will keep getting rewarded for efforts and the skills until he performs so consistently that it is a way of life for him. At that point, he gets the really big prizes.

We'd had no luck gaining these skills on their own, working on one at a time. We had originally thought that throwing them all at him at once would overwhelm him. It seems now that by giving Alex a choice as to what skills he'd like to work on during any given day, he really responds well.

Mommy had to run out and buy some extra prizes to make sure we had some on hand, since the collection of small prizes weren't here yet. JUST in case he naps or something.

So far, he's earning effort smileys galore - except in potty training. Oh well. It's only Day One.

Wish him luck!

Sunday, August 1