Boys & Motorcylces Take 2

Every year Zach receives some Toys R Us gift cards from sympathetic, generous family & friends for being the product of poor parental planning with a Christmas Eve birthday. The idea is that we will find him a 1/2 birthday present. So Zach was smitten at a birthday party with a 4-wheeler that hauled (in mom's opinion). And I knew (really, hoped) I had found his Achilles heel. But I just don't want him to feel like he gets everything he wants, so we made him EARN it by staying in bed for 7 nights (without getting out of bed). It didn't need to be in a row because I thought that might be too hard. We printed a picture of a 4-wheeler and each morning he could cross off a night. Of course the first night, it was my turn to do bedtime and he failed to earn the checkmark. Of the 7 nights he stayed in, 5 were for Dad and 2 for me - no surprise there. Ever since he has moved into a big boy bed - 16 months ago, he and I have been going round and round on bedtime. I have read parenting books, visited websites, talked to friends and family, tried many methods to try and keep him in bed, or in his room - hard love, lots of love, taking toys away, keeping toys, nightlights, no nightlights, gate, double gate, star turtle, flashlight, cuddling, not cuddling - you name it, I've tried it. He's fallen asleep on the floor, in his bookshelf, on the bed most nights - but needless to say, it's not been the highlight of my parenting. So I finally found a 12 Volt Motorcycle on Craig's list that was much more reasonably priced than Toys R Us so I jumped on it. We brought it home Thursday night and charged up the batteries. He was ready to ride on Friday, but the batteries were duds, so off to Toys R Us to get the new batteries - thanks Auntie Grammy, Pops & Samantha. Bedtime Friday night - different night, same story. He was out of bed for me 3 times - UGH! So we held tough and no riding Saturday - it did help that it rained. This consistency thing is SOOO challenging at times. But Saturday night he was great - for Ryan of course, so this morning he asked about it first thing after waking up. I don't think he got off the motorcycle more than 3 or 4 times before the batteries died - the kid was in Heaven for almost 2 hours! Ryan is off to Vegas for 5 nights for the International Association of Fire Fighters Conference, so I'm going solo for several nights. 1st night - so far, so good. Maybe that is why parents buy their kids cool toys, so they have something to take away if the misbehave :).

Here's some pretty big grins from our "dude." As I looked at the pictures, he is smiling in EVERY single one of them. And anyone who has ever tried to take a picture of Zach (or with Zach) knows that he isn't always game for pictures
(which we are working on by trying to take more and more).