Art Sparks

Our first trip this year to Art Sparks.......
Hayden had a great time and LOVES this place. This makes our third time there and although it is different I am surprised that given the choice of this or Kazoing or All About Kids he would pick this place every time. This is located in a local art museum and so it is designed to foster to kids creativity. Hayden and Landon both like to sit at the easels and paint and then they move onto the old cottage kitchen and sailboat. This time Grammy went with us which added to the fun and was a big help to me. This was the most crowded and overwhelming I have seen this place. I have learned not to go any where in the later weeks of May as school field trips are going on at every kids place and Art sparks was no exception. 20-30 six to nine year olds were running around this place that normally has about 5 kids quietly playing. So two hours was about all that we could do and then we went back to Grammys for pizza.
Grammy went with us to Art Sparks not as a help to me but to celebrate Hayden's accomplishment of getting his reward board filled with stickers (28 to be exact). In May he was having a hard time with his behavior and had resorted to throwing fits of rage or as some call them temper tantrums. He never really had these as a toddler but when 3 1/2 got here so did the arrival of this less than pleasant behavior. He was having them at paw paw and dedes alot and at home as well. They had gotten so bad that a total stranger came up to help Deanna both at the zoo and at McDonald's because he was so out of control. Even this did not calm him down. Only spying a police officer did the trick. So instead of having Deanna give into his demands to stop the outbursts I got some construction paper with boxes drawn on eagerly awaiting stickers. After earning 7 stickers a reward was given such as going to chick fil a or kazoing or the zoo and at the end of 4 weeks the grand reward was a trip to Art Sparks with Grammy. On days he didn't behave well he would get an ugly X on his board and he had to cover the ugly X with a sticker the following day if he was good. This system seems to work very well and in fact as soon as this reward board was completed we moved on to a sleep reward board to help combat night awakenings with screaming and crying needing me to be in his room with him to fall asleep and then several times throughout the night. I tell you what..... so far 3 1/2 seems to be the most difficult with our once good sleeper not sleeping well, having temper tantrums and just being irritable and dare I say moody. Don't get me wrong he still has sweet moments of unsolicited kisses and spontaneous I love yous. He can be the sweetest but then the next moment can be trying my last iota of patience. I am hoping with the approaching birthday in October we will be able to say "so long" to temper tantrums and frequent night awakenings and welcome back to the sweet, tender hearted Hayden that sleeps great and isn't scared of his room.