Earning my stripes

Just a little bit ago, as I was sitting on the couch at Callum's feet, he looked at me and said (with disgust, I might add!) "Go somewhere else. I'm resting."

Jeez. What a jerk.

My Dad said I'm certainly earning my stripes as a Mom.

Totally!!

Anyway, we got past that bit of moodiness and amazingly, I talked Callum into joining me for a short walk before it got dark.

Yesterday I got him out to walk, but it was bad and he was kicking and screaming the entire time. So, once we turned the corner, I pointed to the stop sign at the end of the block and said ok, here's the deal. We're going to walk to that red stop sign, tag it and then turn around and walk back. He did it, whining and crying the whole way, and pissed at me anytime I tried to distract him with talk, but I think knowing there was an end in sight to my torture helped.

So tonight, before leaving the house, I said ok, here's the deal. We can either take Odin on a long walk, and you can ride in the stroller. Or, we can take a short walk to the red stop sign and back, just you and me, without the stroller.

Amazingly, he agreed to the stop sign! And this time, he was super chatty and talked to me the entire time. Success!

Of course, I got ballsy and as we were approaching our red stop sign target I asked him, hmmmm, I wonder if there's another stop sign at the next street? He said, maybe. So I said, how about tomorrow we check it out to see.

Okay Mama. Tomorrow.

:)