It's a question of motivation...

Michael has recently bought a brand new hi-def projector for his home theater. It was a reward for losing a certain amount of weight. I don't know how much motivation the hi-def projector provided him, but it seems like a nice reward.

Inspired by him Wendy and I have been debating what motivates us. We've discussed the possibility of a "techie" reward following Michael's example. In theory, something like the Iphone 6 should be fairly motivating.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure that is as motivating for me as it theoretically would be. In my experience the times that I've been most "motivated" seem to revolve around some form of competition. The time I lost 30 pounds in two months? Yep, weight loss competition.

So the problem I run into is; how do I make things I don't want to do...or perhaps better stated, currently lack the motivation to do, a competition? My results may depend on how I answer that question.

We're still trying to figure out what motivates Wendy. She joked today that "negative" consequences seem to be her best motivation.  For example, one of her suggestions recently was that if we didn't reach certain goals within a certain number of months we would be "forced" to buy a treadmill desk.

I guess at some point we all have to decide what it is that motivates us. I'm sure that we all wish it could be as easy as a 5 month old boy who wants a train.

Naptime routine

Naptime Routine

We've worked hard to create a consistent naptime routine for Andrew. By and large he lays down for his naps and bedtime relatively easily...as long as you willing to read a lot of books (which I am!). Today was not one of the easy days. We completed the routine, Andrew was in bed, thumb, in mouth, blanket over him, and kisses received. Usually this is the point where the parents say "night, night," leave, and the toddler goes to sleep.

Today at naptime...suddenly...thumb popped out of mouth...blanket was thrown off the bed..and toddler jumped out of bed.  Something had happened in his little toddler brain that shut off all synapses related to sleeping. These synapses did not restart despite the multiple, and sometimes painful efforts of his parents.  Including trying to let him take a nap with his parents. Abject failure.

Finally, we decided that Andrew needed to go and play somewhere because he obviously was not going to be taking a nap.  Due to how my brain is wired, Sunday afternoons are the only days that I can take a nap (too much to do on all the other days).  Wendy, being the saintly woman she is, decided to take one for the team and took Andrew out to play while I took a nap. 

Andrew, observant child that he is, caught on quickly. So he climbed up into the bed where I was laying, leaned over, gave me a kiss on the cheek,  and softly whispered  "night night" before leaving the room and closing the door.  Appears that Andrew's bedtime routine is now my bedtime routine also. 

The insight the toddler gives me.

Today's "It's disturbing the insight my toddler gives on my habits"  experience.

I was reading one of my textbooks while marking with a highlighter.
Andrew was next to me drawing on his papers with his highlighter.

I notice that Andrew has the unopened end of the highlighter stuck in his mouth while grinning widely at me. At which point I realize, my highlighter is in exactly the same position.  Appears I eat my highlighters when studying.