Sunday, August 8, 2010

Fish Fish!

Daily Zachary asks about a brother, sister, or a dog.  He wants one really bad.  Kevin & I will get him a dog one of these days when Zachary can help with him.  One of these days we would also LOVE to give him a sibling too.  It's all a matter God's plan & timing.  With that said, during bedtime stories last week Zachary just started crying. Out of no where. I had no idea what upset him.  He told me that he was sad because his doggie ran away.  WHAT?  He said that we had a dog when he was little and it ran away. After 5 minutes of trying to calm him down I called for reinforcement. Kevin came in his bedroom to save the day. Kevin is the master negociator.  By the end of the conversation Kevin had Zachary wanting a fish, instead. 

Story to a story:  Zachary has the opportunity to earn 1 sticker per day.  If he goes to bed without any complaining, crying, excuses, or wants (water, mom to sleep with him, more books, etc) AND he does not get out of bed in the middle of the night to wake me up for silly things (to be tucked back in, to remove a "scary" stuffed animal, etc.) he will EARN one sticker for his calendar.  After 10 stickers he is able to go to the dollar store to purchase a toy.  When we started this it was 5 stickers.  Now that he gets it we have bumped it to 10. Its amazing that if we do not dangle the carrot before bedtime how he will walk into our room at 3 am because he is "loose" in his sheets. Seriously 3 year olds and bedtime is worse than when he was a newborn.  The sticker thing really works and mommy gets her sleep.  Praise the Lord!  Okay back to the fish story.

It just so happened that Zachary had 9 stickers on the night that he broke down about a dog that we never had.  So Kevin told Z that if he got a tenth sticker he could get a fish.  You might remember my cousin Abbey giving Z a fish when he was 2. Or remember when the fish died. We saved the tank and most of the requirements to own a fish so getting a new fish was a great idea. The next day we joined Grammy at the pet store to pick out the perfect fish.
Zachary has made his selection:  A male beta
Zachary decided he was going to name him.....Drum Roll please....FISH FISH!  Very original, huh?
Grammy & Zachary with new new fish
Fish Fish in his new home

2 comments:

Jennifer Horgan said...

Congrats on your new family member!! My niece, Avah, just got two hermit crabs because her 15 year old golden retriever had to go to heaven with Stoli. I hope Fish Fish! keeps him happy for a long time!!

Anonymous said...

I love your idea about the sticker reward system. Carina is a constant battle at bedtime and in the middle of the night too. Good luck with Fish Fish!