A Life Lesson Day...

This was you at the beginning of the day. You were so excited!

Dear Braeden,
I wanted to write this to you so you could always remember this day. I will never forget it, but you will too many times I'm sure, so this is a little reminder.
As you probably remember, you have been having a very hard time going to school since Christmas. There haven't been many days without the tears and even sobs. Sunday night we had a superbowl party with lots of your friends. We had a fun time, but you were up late and the house was a mess. When you woke up Monday morning, I gave you the choice of staying home or going to school. Of course, you immediatly said "stay home!," and your tired, whiny attitude went away immediatly. There was a stipulation though; you had to help me do everything I would usually do while you were at school, and you weren't allowed to watch tv or play with Brooklynn or Barrett from 8 a.m till 3 p.m. You were still very excited about your day. You were amazing. I have never seen you work so hard. By 10:00 you had cleaned the playroom in the garage; cleaned the playroom in the house; cleaned your room (& you put all the toys where they go); you went around the house and picked up all the toys scattered (even Brooklynn's); you helped me with 4 loads of laundry (put them in the washer, over to the dryer, and then sorted them into your containers); you made your snack for the month (19) and even made Brooklynn and Barrett's lunches for Tuesday and thursday. I walked into the kitchen, and you were changing the trash, without even being asked, and while I was changing Barrett's diaper, you started vaccumming the kitchen, lr and dining room. I was so amazed at your enthusiasm at getting all the work done, but it made me worry that my plan was going to backfire. Around 10:20 you were asking for a break, so we ate lunch. You fixed our lunches, and we all ate together. So then I told you we were going to take Valentine pictures and then run errands, and that's when my plan started working. We took a few pictures, and then we ran all over town: Marshal's, Cake Design, my doctor, and Target. You kept asking what they were doing at school, how much longer till school was over--you were not happy-we had tears, not fairs, and many exasperated looks--and I was loving it. I kept reminding you that you could be at school, playing on the playground, eating snack, doing your work---you even said a couple of times, "I sure wish I was at school". We talked about what it would be like if you never went to school. I told you we could do this everyday, and if you weren't educated you could do this your whole life. You made the funniest face and said, "I am definitly going to school, but maybe I can have a cleaning day every once in a while, but no errands." That sounded like a good idea to me! That night when I was tucking you in and saying your prayers, you said you couldn't wait to go to school tomorrow. You don't know how happy that made me! You woke up this morning without a whine or a tear and you walked into school with no problems. You are such a big boy and a hard worker.


I love you dearly,


Your Loving Mama









This is what you looked like at the end of the day; you were so tired and cranky! Then I told you school was over and you could play--the unhappy attitude went away and you got an amazing burst of energy!

Barrett and Brooklynn were troopers, they played well together all morning and they both love running errands. This is them on the table while Braeden was vaccuming