This weekend was d1's first trip to the movies. We've been waiting to make this trip for awhile; we wanted to wait until we thought d1 would sit still for at least 1/2 of the movie. We were pleasantly surprised when he managed to make it through the entire movie with just one bathroom break and a few (okay, about 10) seat changes between his seat, my lap and D1's lap.
Let me preface this by saying that not only was this our first movie theater trip but this was also a big reward for d1. You see, d1 can be quite a handful with his energy, enthusiasm and love for life....oh, and his desire to use words that his friends are teaching him at school paired with his unusually strong will. That being said, last week he "moved up" to the next class at school (daycare just sounds so wrong), which brings a new teacher and a new set of rules. His former teacher and his new teacher are like night and day with completely different techniques and I think it was just a matter of d1 adjusting to this new atmosphere. His new teacher has a "grading scale" for behavior - green card=GOOD day, red card=needs improvement, black card=BAD day and there are some others in between...you get the point. Well, d1's first couple of days were "free" days meaning he didn't receive a rating. However, the first day he got a pretty red card (not good but could be worse). We talked with him on how we are to act at school and thought it would resolve itself. Ha! The next day, D1 picked him up to see that he was exceptionally naughty and this card was a very dark, sad color of BLACK. Of course D1 and I discussed this with d1 all night long and asked what he did to deserve this card....and he honestly and openly admitted to us that he called his friends stupid, told them to shut-up, and he didn't pick up his toys at clean-up time. We were very unhappy and explained (as well as you can to a 3 year old) that this is unacceptable behavior, that we DO NOT say those words EVER and that we ALWAYS pick up our toys. In fact, we practiced that night in our playroom....and we quickly saw how he earned a black card! He had no interest in cleaning up; he just kept finding more toys to play with and kept saying he would clean up "in a minute" (I believe he learned that phrase from D1). We purposely made that evening quite uneventful to show d1 that we do not get rewarded for naughty behavior - no dessert (his fav meal of the day), no hide-and-seek, no fun stuff until our behavior improved. So, D1 and I decided that if he had a better day on Friday, we would do something super special for him. When D1 picked d1 up at school that afternoon.....HOORAY!! He did it! He got a green card. I don't know if I've ever been so proud of him....and he was pretty darn proud of himself! Which leads us to the reward....
As I mentioned above, we had been waiting for the right time to venture out to the big movie theater and we decided this was the best time to do so. We took d2 to Grandpa's for a couple of hours and made this movie night all about d1. You can see in the pictures that he had a great time. I think his favorite was the large bucket of popcorn that he held on with a firm grasp....he even saw a friend sitting behind us watching the movie, too!
One final note to this incredibly LONG post....we really had a great time, no meltdowns, no tantrums, really just a great night all around....except for the PRICE! If anyone has been to a movie lately, they can relate to my astonishment. Seriously, we went to a matinee and it cost us $20 just to see the movie and then another $16 for popcorn and two drinks. Where has the increased costs to the movie theaters come from??? Absolutely ridiculous....in all seriousness, I doubt we will be going back before d2 is ready for his first movie trip!
