I have gone back and forth on my parenting skillz here and there, but for the most part I feel like the babies should do what I ask "because I ask them" and the Lord gave them to me to parent. You know "it's their job kind of thing". Then I heard our pastor say something along the lines of..."the best way to motivate your children is to shamelessly reward them". Well, I will admit by shamelessly reward them to me that means pick out a $15 toy at the toy store or instead of water you can get Kombucha at Whole Foods, but in true Mike Hummel fashion he upped the anty...
By now you know BIG FUZZY BALL means I just did the #2 deed on the potty and I am a BIG TIME BOY. So the night before this big red fuzzy ball was doled out Mike promises this child that if he goes poop on the potty he will take him on the Dart Train all the way down to American Airlines Center to the Mavs Game. Now THAT is a shameless reward. I hear this conversation going on in the other room and all I can hear is the Hummel cash register a-dinga-linging.
So of course the next morning the little guy sits down and gets to business...
I texted Mike and said something along the lines of "get your wallet out and buy this child some basketball tickets."
Here is my big boy with his Mavs jersey on, a monkey basketball shirt on underneath and approximately 50 labels on his clothes that say "my name is Graham, call my dad at xxx if I am lost". Ok, so there weren't 50, but I did label him and then had a talk with him about where to tell someone his label is. Paranoid much? I mean who wouldn't want to steal this child, cute, polite, funny and smart to boot.
Mike got home with a few pictures that are priceless...
Waiting for the Dart.
Little known fact about Graham...if he stays up past his 8-8:30p bedtime the wheels fall off in an extra energy kind of way. There were about 10 pictures of the child running on Mike's phone. JOY JOY JOY.
Riding the elevator at the Mavs game. Super exciting to a 3 year old. He also informed me that his daddy said he could walk up the elevator when he is 4, but until then he has to stay still...ha. Good rule, Mike.
They stayed at the game for all of 4 minutes. Mike said Graham was too crazy to be contained around the other patrons. So back to the Dart they went.
More running...
Daddy and G...
On the train...
They got home at 10:30p. I think in total they rode the Dart for a combined 2 or 3 hours...ha. Mike was worn out and Graham was so PUMPED. He has not stopped talking about the train with his dad to EVERYONE. Mike even went the extra mile and bought a homeless guy dinner with Graham as a teachable moment and the guy couldn't get a word in edgewise because Graham was telling him about going on the Dart train with daddy and pooping on the potty. Hopefully, the homeless guy was entertained. Graham just wanted to move on to the next train - forget the teaching dad.
He was SOOOOO tired. Sweet baby. I think I asked Mike 1,000 times when they got home if everyone thought he was SO CUTE...ha. Crazy mom central.
He has done his biz on the potty everyday since the moment that stopped his world - DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT - Ick.
I'm thankful for a husband who knows what shameless means, and who realizes that money is just money - that you can't take with you. I'm thankful these kids have a dad that delights in them and LOVES to spend time with them. They are lucky to have us balance each others extremes...if it were up to me -NO REWARDS...if it were up to Mike $20K rewards!
Let's Hear it for Being Shameless
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