Stickers and Icecream or "How to get Kirstin to do what you want."

I'm sitting here, right before my bedtime writing this.  I'm enjoying this time tonight.  I have a great sense of accomplishment from the day.  Part of that could be that I started my day at 4:15 a.m.  I got up because Kirstin wouldn't stay in her bed, and sleep attempts were futile anyway.  Instead, I looked up some stuff online that I haven't been able to get to, folded some laundry, and read part of a book I've had sitting off to the side for entirely too long.  As six o'clock edged nearer, Emily woke up again, so I fed her and started my day for real.

While I was in the shower I brainstormed ideas as to how to keep Kirstin in her bed.  Most nights she's up at least twice, and last night she was up about 7 times, which meant in total I was up 10 times last night, because of course she and Emily couldn't make their needs correspond.  After talking the matter over with Matt, we've decided to "go back to basics."  We took down her bed tent, took away all but one stuffed animal, her glo-worm and her blanket, her radio doesn't work for her anymore (I know the magical fix though), and her bright nighlight is also kaput.  And she's also down to only one book in bed.  Then we introduced the chart.  She gets a sticker tomorrow if she follows the chart.  We cross things off as she does them.  On there are things like getting her jammies on without trouble, going upstairs without complaining, staying in bed, staying quiet, and going to sleep.  Then there's a graduated system for getting her stuff back.  She needs three consecutive nights to get a couple of stuffed animals back.  We're not letting her have as many as she wants anymore, as there was barely room for her in the bed.  Then after she gets the stuffed animals, it's two more nights to one more book, etc.  So far, this first night, it's working.  We'll see how it goes later on. She's very excited about the idea of having stickers.  At the end of all of it, if she stays in her bed for 10 consecutive nights she gets a picnic with Mom.  Just the two of us.  Probably out at the WROC gardens, though I may opt for somewhere else if they're not in their full summer glory yet.  We'll see.  I think I have some time to be deciding that.

Also in the random news, I brought the girls to the library on Tuesday.  I needed some reading material and a deadline to get me back into my reading habit.  The library provided both.  While there, we got Kirstin signed up for the summer reading program.  This is the first time either of us has been involved in something like that.  She got a poster with areas to color for every 15 minutes we read.  I think I could recite the Franklin and Clifford books she chose, but if it gets us reading more, I have no problems with it.  The book time was rather lax around here before this, so it's a good incentive.  If she gets all the areas colored in on the poster she gets a gift certificate to Dairy Queen for a small cone or something like that. 

So yeah, we're bribing our older child to be good and to do things.  Right now, anything that works is fine with me.  And hey, at least stickers still make her enthusiastic about trying things!  Sometimes it's the little things in life that motivate.