She's off!

The boys and I spend the morning in A2... we took my mom back to the airport this morning. It was a sad goodbye for Porter... he misses her so much when she's not around. I had originally wanted to take the boys to Build A Bear but Porter started our morning off with tantrums. He turns into this totally different kid when my mom's around- throwing tantrums, back talking, acting naughty and not listening. Sure, he does these things to an extent when she's not here but he is 10 times worse when she is around. I hate that he acts like that and I'm not sure what to do about it.

I nixed the Build A Bear idea. I'm waiting for Porter to reach the top of his "Winning Stick" to earn a prize. He picked Chuck-e-Cheese (Jen... you and Nathan get ready soon... we plan to meet you up there!) as his reward. He gets SO close to the top of the stick and well, its like 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. So far the things he's been rewarded for are so minuscule compared to the naughty things he's doing to warrant him moving down the stick. I hope that once he receives his "big reward" that he'll be more inclined to put forth good behavior. I've decided to stop taking the boys anywhere fun until they earn it. Same with buying things... I haven't picked up a Dollar Spot Toy or HotWheels for the boys since before Christmas. My goal for 2010 is to start making them EARN rewards. Earn trips to the Treehouse and to ChuckE Cheese and places like Build A Bear.

I'm going to start a chore chart for Porter as well so he can start earning money to buy things for himself. He's always asking for toys at the store and I keep telling him he can earn money to buy them himself but I haven't really done anything to give him the tools to actually earn the money.

Instead of the mall (Build A Bear and the playplace) we went to DSW Shoes to take back some boots I bought and to PetCo to see the animals. We also went to Subway (I had wanted to go to Panera but the line was SO long and the boys were cranky). That was quite the trip.... Porter threw a fit on the way in. I made him walk in with only one shoe on because he was whining about not being able to put on his shoe that he's perfectly capable of putting on. Once we got in Subway I asked him to sit in the booth with my purse. There was a group of some kind of girls sports team there... probably high school or college. Well, Porter went to take off his coat and ended up taking his shirt off with it. He was all the way across Subway and I was in the middle of building my sandwich. Luckily one of the girls from that group went over and helped him. Then Hudson threw a huge fit about wanting a cookie. They were THOSE kids. Porter raiding my purse, calling Ryan 40 times in a row, getting into my gum and Hudson screaming and whining, kicking his feet, shoving his food. It was a mess. Then Ryan proceeded to call me back like 5 times in a row in the middle of all this chaos. I'm sure we were quite a sight.

This weekend is already flying by. I was exhausted this afternoon and took a nap with Porter. I've started working on the canvas for Hudson's new room... I'm painting a knock-off of the Solar System from Land of Nod. I hope it turns out cute!