Different People, Different Motivation

This morning Kees woke up and wanted to wear his Bumble Bee costume. He has been wearing it every day this week. Yesterday I heard him singing his Bumble Song. The song is really "Imma Be" by the Black Eyed Peas. The video is inappropriate for my kids, they have not seen it. All they really hear is the beat and Kees hears "Bumble Bee" when they are singing "Imma Be." After seeing the video, he's not that far off. The video has a bunch of transformers in it. Go figure.

Yesterday I heard him singing, "Bumble bee, bumble bee, bumble bumble bumble bee." He had his costume on and was standing in front of the full length mirror in the bathroom. When I peeked my head around the corner he couldn't see me because he had the mask on. I watched him for a few minutes. He was moving a little bit and really checking himself out singing all the while. When he finally noticed me he stopped and got a silly grin on his face. He then said that he needed the picture on the back of his costume too because he couldn't be the real Bumble Bee if the picture was only on the front. I said I'd keep my eye out for one like that....they don't make 'em.

When he woke up this morning he jumped out of bed and put on his costume with nothing underneath. I told him that he needed to put on clothes and he could wear his costume over them. He started crying a deep, soulful cry. "I can't. I only have jeans and they'll be lumpy and I can't wear them under my costume." I said, "I'm sorry but you have to get dressed." He cried....hard. Really hard. He said he only had jeans and that he needed other pants. Ahhhh, a teaching moment.... "It sounds like we need to do some laundry. Do you need to fold some more clothes so you have other pants?" And he said, "Yeah, I need to do my laundry."

Hello!!!! When was the last time you heard a 4 year old say, "I need to do my laundry." Me....never! I was thrilled. I have been keeping up with the cleaning of the clothes but I will not fold their stuff anymore. To have them asking when we can fold clothes is awesome. Saturday is the day this week.

He was still upset and I finally had to put Bumble Bee in time out until after school. There were lots of tears over that but he recovered.

It's funny what motivates us. I am motivated by getting things done. When my fridge and pantry are stocked, my laundry put away, and my house clean I can relax. If everything is undone I can't stop my mind long enough to relax. Kees needs to run out of clothes to be motivated to do his laundry. Sophia is motivated by a goal...Clean your room and then you can have a play date. Coulter is motivated by praise and Bob is motivated when I tell him to be...most of the time. Not to say that he isn't self motivated sometimes. He likes to do the fun projects and not so much the ones that need to be done.

Bumble Bee is waiting upstairs for Kees' arrival. I am sure that he'll do what he's done the first 4 days of the week. He comes home from school, puts on his pajamas and then his costume. I now understand the pjs. Smooth pjs, smooth costume. Ahhh, it makes sense now. I'll see if I can get him singing on the flip. It's terribly cute and so honest and 4, very 4. May you find what motivates you and get 'er done.