Bribery

If you don't watch the show Parenthood, you should. It is one of the best shows that television has to offer, in my opinion. Person of Interest is another favorite of mine. Jim Caviezel just so happens to be my virtual boyfriend--don't worry, Walter knows all about this. It's no secret that Walter has a thing for Rachel Bilson, so it's all good.

There's a story-line in Parenthood about a woman named Julia and her husband, who have adopted an older child, and things aren't going well. So, she headed over to Christina's house to ask for some parenting advice. For anyone who hasn't watched the show, Christina's son, Max, has autism, and they are used to dealing with a challenging child and angry outbursts. Julia, who was feeling at a loss with their newly adopted son, asked what Christina's trick is with Max. Bribery. And she pulled out a giant container of candy and told her, plain and simple, if he does this thing, he gets this many pieces of candy...that thing, and a few more pieces of candy.

There you have it. The secret of parenting.

When I was pregnant with Isaac, and couldn't get Isabella to take a nap, I bribed her with M&Ms. Every day I reminded her, "if you take a nap, you may have two M&Ms when you wake up!" My mom was like, "seriously, she only gets to have two?" In a house without candy, two M&Ms to a two year old was like hitting the jackpot.

Remembering that, makes me wish I could bribe Isaac with some candy. It doesn't work so well to promise to blend it up and push it through his tube. Alas.

What I have discovered though, is that the iPad, is the perfect tool for bribery. This was all very exciting for me since we're really struggling to get Isaac to wear his braces. When we put his braces on, he considers himself immobile, which doesn't help me at all. I did manage to get him to walk across the living-room while holding the iPad just out of reach. And later, he even walked from the living-room to the kitchen all of his own volition. He was quite proud of himself, until he looked down, and I watched as the pride washed from his face, and he remembered how truly terrible it is to wear braces, and started crying.

Isabella is in the process of learning many sight words. She picks up on them pretty quickly, but I thought it might be fun to have a sight word scramble. I said the word, and she erased the correct one from the board. She got it right every time.

Here she is, explaining to me how she set out buckets of water so that the tops would freeze and she would have ice plates.  

"Mommy, you have to be very careful with ice. It breaks very easily and then I would have to wait a long, long time to make more ice plates."

While in the car this week, she told me I'm a really amazing singer. Just so you know, I'm not, but all that matters is that my favorite little girl, thinks that I am.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sierra