The Power of Motivation

Universe Man recently spent a week with his grandfather. He doesn’t start school until next Monday and Mr. Personality started the day after Labor Day, so the extended visit made my life a whole lot easier. (Of course, LSH’s car troubles this week have made my life more difficult, but that’s another story).

In any case, Universe Man is definitely a night person. Of the, “I hate morning, I’m cranky, don’t wake me up, I’m not getting dressed” variety. He is not a morning person. I feel the same way about mornings, so I can relate and usually empathize and we get through those tough mornings somehow.

But when he was visiting Grandfather, Universe Man turned into a morning person, or at least a reasonable facsimile of one. The alarm went off at 6:20 am and by the time Grandfather had gotten to his room to let Universe Man know that it was time to get up, Universe Man was up and dressed and ready to go. This is shocking. It was not shocking when Mr. Personality did it during his visit with Grandfather. Mr. Personality is a morning person and the reason we have “no earlier than” rules at our house and are very, very grateful for the precocity that allowed us to convey this concept to the boys at an early age.

So Universe Man is up and ready to go and when he called me to tell me about his day, I asked why he was getting up so early. I figured he wasn’t going to let his little brother show him up. That may have been part of it, but it turns out that wasn’t the official reason why. Why? “If I didn’t get up, we’d have to go to late minyan. I didn’t want to have to go to late minyan.” So I asked him if he’d be getting up and getting himself dressed for school when he was at home. He said he wouldn’t be doing it then (I can dream, can’t I?), but that “if we had to go to late minyan we’d miss out on a lot of the day.”

On the other hand, he’s really anxious to start school this year, so maybe he will get himself up and ready, at least for a little while.

It was awesome

Yesterday was Mr. Personality’s first day of school. His first day in first grade. And if anyone asked him how his day was, he said the same thing. “It was awesome!” I know that he said this because he said it to me, he said it to the Long-Suffering Husband (LSH), and he said it to his aunt.

He reported that he learned lots of things, that it was fun, that there were toys in the morning classroom but none in the afternoon classroom (and no playtime in the afternoon), that he met old friends and new friends, and that one of his new friends tied his shoe for him when it became inexplicably untied. He did not say inexplicably untied. I believe he said something like, “For some reason, my left shoe got untied.” All by itself. It could happen.

Mr. Personality also reported that he saw lots of his friends who are in kindergarten this year while waiting for carpool but that some of his friends are riding the bus. He then instructed me to call several parents “right now” to arrange playdates. This is the kind of thing he does, and this is why he may a) not survive his childhood if he doesn’t learn to stop trying to order the adults in his life around and b) one day rule the world.

After we got home, he took himself upstairs and did his homework. Then he showed me a picture he drew, which was an accurate depiction of the event in question in black marker and pencil. Mind you, I sent him to school with a box of markers (not just black) and a box of crayons, as well as pencils.

So far, so good.

Raspberry picking

It’s been over a week now, but we had the best time raspberry picking last week. (We had a nice time picking yesterday too, but it wasn’t as much fun as the last time). I belong to a local organic farm and although we enjoy everything from the farm, the early spring (strawberries) and the late summer/early fall (raspberries) are my family’s favorite times to go to the farm and “pick.” As in, “We’re going to go pick at the farm after school today.” Which is how we refer to it.

The farm is also just about the only place I ever let my older kids get out of my sight in public. Not out of yelling distance, and the rule is that they must answer when I call them or privileges will be revoked, but in the several years since this privilege began, I’ve only had to revoke it once. That was a few years ago and if I recall, it involved Universe Man walking too fast for Mr. Personality.

While the Bunny Friend and I went and picked the rest of our produce, the boys got started with the raspberries. Eventually we joined them, but I wasn’t getting very far with putting berries in my container because the Bunny Friend wanted me to keep picking berries for her. And Universe Man was getting tired. I don’t remember what Mr. Personality thought about the matter.

So I asked Universe Man if he would be in charge of the Bunny Friend. He is much reliable about this than his brother because a) he is older and b) for whatever reason, he doesn’t get jealous as much. He agreed. (It should be noted that they were both right next to me the whole time). His assignment? Choose ripe raspberries for your sister to pick and eat. Keep up with her. Do not let her pick or otherwise eat overripe or underripe berries or anything else she shouldn’t eat.

He did a great job.

*Lest you think that we do not respect the “picking limits” at our farm, I should point out that when we eat as we pick, we don’t take as much home. We pick our share, we just eat part of it as we go. Sometimes we eat all of it, but not last week.