Rewards Charts

My husband and I have been pretty diligent in correcting Joey's occasionally, not so awesome behavior. Part of the process has been creating rewards charts and him earning stickers when he meets our expectations of a desired behavior.

I wasn't exactly sure how to make a rewards chart or what to put on it. I brainstormed for awhile trying to make the expectations both helpful and a learning moment for Joey. I searched around Google and found a great website that offered free pdf documents of rewards charts. Find the website for the rewards chart here.

I started off by printing two rewards charts in different colors. I printed them onto white card stock to make them more durable.



I opted to make two different charts. One for Behavior and one for Chores.
I used scrapbooking stickers to decorate mine and it is completely up to you on how you want to design it.

For Behavior I chose 5 different task for Joey to achieve: Manners, Listening, Walking, Inside Voice, and Sharing.

For Chores I chose: Set the Table, Put away his Laundry, Pick up Toys, Brush Teeth, and Potty Time. I wanted to think of a better name besides chores, b/c obviously some of these task are not chore like, but oh well.

Once the chart has all the desired task labeled I put them in sheet protectors. I used sheet protectors because I have so many of them and that way I can reuse the paper once the charts are full. Just toss the sheet protector and put the chart in a new one.

I added some ribbon to it and called it good.


*It doesn't have manner stickers on it b/c we just started it the other day.

Joey loves the idea and we love that he is willing to modify his behavior to earn stickers. We hung the chart low on the wall so Joey can see his progress. We also award with tiny star stickers he can put on his hand for each task he perfoms. Once the entire chart is filled out Joey can choose one prize from the prize box. I haven't made the box yet but it most likely will be full of toy cars, stickers, a piece of candy, etc.; everything that Joey likes.

With the Rewards Charts I found it easier to make task that fit Joey's needs and personality. Joey loves setting the table, so he feels like he is being a big boy and helping out "Mommy". I try to incorporate the Rewards Chart through out the day and always give Joey chances to earn stickers. Occasionally he does task without me asking. I also reward him even when he is not doing the desired behavior just for the stickers, that way its unpredictable and he will strive more and more to have good behavior and responsibility. For example, this morning I handed him his sippy cup and he said "Thank You" without me reminding him too. For that he earned a sticker. And you can bet his manners were very good the rest of the day.

The end result of Rewards Charts use should be that Joey will complete the desired task and behaviors without being asked too.

Motherhood is Scary

I think every mother knows THE ever real fears that are associated with having children. Will my child be healthy? Will he develop normally? How can I keep him the most safe?

I remember when Joey was first born, I had the huge fear of SIDS. I don't think anything worse then that could happen to your own child. I used a baby monitor all the way up until 2.5 years and constantly checked on Joey at night. When he turned one I was more relieved, when he turned 2 the fear subsided.

But one thousand more fears take its place and continue to add up from the day he took his first breath.

I fear most the things I have no control of, but I obsess over the things I do have control of. I am a safety freak when it comes to windows, plugs, streets, and heights. I have an overly active imagination that scares the heck out of me at times. I know that when Joey is with me he is safe. So naturally I have trust issues with others.

Don't get me wrong I love that my family babysits Joey and I trust them too but normally I leave without a verbally demanding list of do's and don'ts. Like I said, its a control thing. I reason that everything should and will be OK as long as I verbally remind others.

As Joey starts to grow from a toddler to a child I start to feel that I don't have control over the things I wish I could. I know I can't protect him from everything but I would lay out my life for his own. I pray every night that he has a wonderful, long life and grows to be an old man.

I am able to grasp tangible reasoning's to understand certain things, but unfortunately Joey does not fully realize the "cause and effect" theory quite yet.
Just today my friend, Marie and I took Joey swimming. We have discovered that by using a life jacket Joey has more freedom in the pool and in turn, I don't kicked all the time. We all got out of the pool to put our feet in the hot tub when Joey stood up and just jumped into the pool. With no regard to anyone around him Joey made the decision to get in water (life jacket on) without an adult and that SCARES ME!

We have a rule for swimming. Joey is not allowed to enter the water until an adult is in and gives him permission to do so. So for Joey to completely disregard that rule doesn't surprise me but more in so, worries me. I began to question his reasoning and then my mind went wild!

"What happens if he escapes the apartment at night when we are sleeping and knows what elevators to take to which floor to get to the pool and jumps in?"

Of course most of this question is absurd and ridiculous. We have a hotel lock on our door which he cannot reach, he would have to enter a code to get into the other building where the pool is and the doors to the pool are so heavy that they are difficult for me to open. But of course there is always the slight possibility.

All of this ran through my head in a matter of seconds so I did the best thing I knew to do. I went into the pool, set him on the deck and took his life jacket off. I then let him jump back in and let him go just enough for him to realize that he had to really kick and struggle to keep his head above water and that he can't go without the life jacket. I then sat him down and lectured him that he cannot swim alone.

I am not sure how much got through to him, but I hope enough.

Like I said motherhood is scary. But I also believe those fears are what make us good mothers.

So next on my to do list?
Research how to teach a child to flip over on their back and float in the water.

No!

Today something happened to me that has never happened before.

Joey told me "no"!

It wasn't just a whiny "no", it was defiant.

Before his nap I asked him to pick up all the toys he took out of his toy box. He looked at me, squinted his eyes, frowned his tiny lips, and said a rough, "no"!

OH HECK NO! I don't think so.

I got down on my hands and knees and said "you will not say NO to me! You will pick up your blocks!"

I left it at that. Joey seems to thrive off of my reactions to his bad behavior, so now I act as nonchalant as I can and immediately redirect. We opted to count the toys together and because I was keen on having him be driven towards good behavior we celebrated with high fives and I gave him a special treat for picking up his toys. I explained to him that the treat was for picking up toys and that it made me happy.

He was happy too.

I suppose as a Mom to a toddler our battles have always been with discipline and tantrums. I knew that the day would come when Joey would become downright defiant, but I never knew how I would feel about it. Well today was a good indicator of that heart sinking feeling that my toddler is beginning to understand and reason like a smart child. He will push the boundaries and push me, but I am determined to raise him right and be smart all at the same time.

Is my son turning into....

Joey Tribiani? You know...the funny guy from Friends?
Just today I was walking over to Play Land at Fred Meyers to pick Joey up and I watched him put his arms around two older girls (ok they were probably like 4 and 5)while they were coloring. I then saw him attempt to kiss and hug one of them, all the while having the hugest smile on his face!

It made me laugh so hard, it was the highlight of my day. Joey is like a spitting image Joey Tribiani!
I have been working on teaching him "How you Doin'?" But he hasn't quite gotten it yet.

Oh how he makes this mama proud!

Seen and Heard Sunday

In a brief recap of our week, here are some things that went on.

-Running running everywhere! Joey doesn't stop. We go over to my parents house a lot so Joey can run wild (can't really do that in apartment living). The weather has been absolutely beautiful so we have been spending a lot of time outside.
I taught Joey the importance of sidewalks and why he should use them when we walked from my parents house to Chambers Bay. It was a beautiful sunny day and opted to take Joey out sans stroller or Puppy harness, not sure if I will do that again.

-Joey keeps has quite the fascination with Fuzzy (my Mom's cat). He will want to call Grandma just so he can talk to Fuzzy. Two days in a row he brought the mail in from my parents house only to walk past Grandma and Grandpa and shove it in front of Fuzzy's face. Apparently Fuzzy pays the bills around here.

-Baby Genius? My brother, the wonderfully nerdy Chemistry major he is, taught Joey that those big concrete red balls outside of Target are Protons. So of course every time we go to Target (which is a lot) he points out the Protons.


-I finally decided to start working out and lifting weights again after perusing through an old college friend's Facebook page and discovering that she is involved in Fitness Shows and is looking great, especially after having a baby.
I want to be physically fit not only for me but for my family. I don't consider myself fat by any means but I do have a layer of fluff that could stand to never be seen again. So I am eying for working out three days a week and staying as active as possible so that I can tone up and lean out.

-Had to have a talk with Joey about appropriate bathroom behavior. We have always had an "Open Door" policy when it comes to the bathroom so that we can encourage Joey to try Potty Training again. Well I apparently have had too much of an open door policy because I caught Joey with a tampon mimicking what you do with it (he was fully dressed). I can't believe I am telling everyone this, but kids catch on so quickly. And so you can understand why I have started locking the door. <----(insert Mom of the Year Moment Here)

-And finally....Pretty sure our downstairs neighbors moved out of their apartment into a new one on the way other end of our floor. When we first moved in we received a complaint that Joey was being a little too loud (toddlers walk/run loudly!). So I made a 'peace offering' to them with a nice bottle of wine and asked them to please let me know if the noise was a problem again as we were working with Joey on being "Tiny Guy, Quiet Guy."
Well we never heard from them again (even though there have been numerous times where Joey has thrown raging fits on the floor while kicking his legs and pounding on the walls). The other day I was getting on the elevator and saw our downstairs neighbor getting off the elevator on to our floor with groceries in hand. With quick deductive reasoning I soon realized that they probably moved out, more than likely b/c of Joey's loudness. I am too afraid to ask the Apt. Managers, but I have noticed that our apartment has been very cold lately. We haven't had to turn our heat on since before Christmas because we are on the top floor and the heat rises into our apartment from downstairs. So there goes our free heat. =)
And yes I feel bad that our neighbors moved (because of us). But in our defense the floors seem almost paper thin here b/c it sounds like a herd of elephants from up above when we were only walking. And further more it probably wouldn't have been as big of a problem if both our neighbor and Joey and I weren't home all day.
But of course we are still working with Joey on being more tame, even if there is no one underneath us.

-

Hurricane Joey

We have breaking news coming into the newsroom tonight.






It appears that between the hours of 2pm and 3 pm this sunny afternoon, a freak Hurricane ripped through the living room. Deemed Hurricane Joey, the wreckage produced massive amounts of scattered blocks, an emptied out diaper bag, train tracks leading to nowhere, and couch pillows tossed about. Left in its mist this Toddler of a storm left large traces of fingerprints all over the window and TV.

Upon arriving home from her afternoon workout, Joey's Mom was completely puzzled how such a freak storm hit so unassumingly. It was then discovered that directly in the path of Hurricane Joey was a resting Uncle Cody who did not notice the Hurricane's approach until it was too late. After being hit mid range with a flying block Uncle Cody was able to maneuver the Hurricane into his waiting room for a much needed nap. The aftermath, although messy, resulted in a quick clean up. The only set back seemed to be a lack of Windex so the fingerprints remain for another day.



This is reporter Bloggy McBloggerson reporting live from Mom of the Year's residence in Tacoma, WA

Tattle Tale?

Today I realized that Joey is such a tattle tale. But...not in the way you think.

The kids rats himself out!

Apparently he hasn't gotten the memo yet that you keep your lips zipped until someone else tells on you.
Not my Joey though, oh no; he is becoming a little Honest Abe at heart.

Today for instance I dropped him off at the Fred Meyer Playland so I could some grocery shopping because he SERIOUSLY ran from one side of the store to the other. All the while me chasing (slowly) behind him. I really didn't want to make a big scene and run sprints at the store. I did however catch up to him sitting on the couches, which apparently was his plan all along. After that nice ordeal...and everyone staring at mel I promptly checked him into Playland. I gave him the nice "reminder speech" to be a good boy and play nicely and walked away fully knowing that the attendant would probably not have good news for me.
After some leisurely shopping (I had an hour to myself) I went back to pick Joey up. The first thing out of his mouth...

"Joey a BAD baby!"

All I can think is....GREAT! I am not shocked or surprised because it's not news to me, but hey wait....did Joey just rat himself out? Now that is a surprise!

Of course Joey goes into no further detail then that and all the attendant could tell me was that he was very impatient...which means that he was demanding and wanted to be the center of attention. You can't fool me on little words that have make a large bite!

I then broke the news to the attendant that Joey is hyper all the time and let me tell you, she gave me those "sad, poor Mom eyes"! I don't know how I am supposed to take that, but whatever.

Anyways, I have started to think about it and Joey is always telling on himself. When I come home from Volleyball or running errands Joey always has the news to report first hand that he in fact was not well behaved. I just got back from working out and Joey told me, "Cody a bad baby". Which translates into, "I was not good for Uncle Cody."

So until Joey catches on I will take him being honest, unless he tells me I am smelly or something, then we will have to talk. I figure this phase is just incidental and I shouldn't push my luck and hope that Joey is always honest with me. I give him a year and half and he will start telling on others and keeping his lips sealed on his many a doings.

Meet Joey

Pretty cute isn't he?

Don't be fooled.
I have that kid!

That kid??

Oh yes THAT KID!

You know the one I am talking about!
That kid that throws the hugest, most unbelievable, most embarassing fits in the middle of frozen foods aisle.
That kid who decided to jam a marker up his nose only to have the tip break off and then require actual surgery to remove it.
That kid who ripped off all the wall paper from his nursery during nap time.

He is that kid who makes you worry and fret over his number 2's in his diaper for days because he can't find where he put that penny he sneakily took from you.
But he is also that kid that makes life worth living. That kid who makes you look forward to things yet to come and who always keeps you laughing. That kid is why I look forward to building a life around family and faith and all things good. Because of that kid I feel blessed and extremely loved.

Oh how I love that kid. I really do. He is my proudest accomplishment, my favorite person and the one gift that has given me the most amazing feeling of all. Love.
He is also why I am able to dedicate a part of this blog to the most wonderful and outrageous "Mother of the Year" stories. We will get to them...trust me.

For now go check out Kristen's story at We Are That Family. She it witty, funny, and is well spoken on all topics revolved around That Family!