Spring Break: Mission Accomplished, Part II

Liam's goal for Spring Break (set by me, not him) was to learn to tie his shoes. It's one of the things that has been a reminder from the Kindergarten teacher all year to learn. I know he's not the only one in his class who doesn't know how to tie his. But I also know that the teachers won't tie shoes for the kids anymore, so if they come untied they stay untied all day. Liam would rather have untied shoes than learn how to tie them. He has had NO interest. I bought a book with some practice laces, and I looked up shoe tying online and found some songs to sing while learning. Still NO interest.


So at the beginning of Spring Break I set his goal, along with Natalie's goal of ending the pacifier. I told them if they met their goal by the end of Spring Break they could pick out a toy at Target. After three nights of no pacifier, I took Natalie to Target. She had no idea how thankful I was that she gave up the pacifiers, so she was quite satisfied with a baby My Little Pony. Liam wanted a Lego set (of course). But we hadn't even been practicing the shoe tying. Watching Natalie go through the checkout with that pony did NOT go over well.


I got more sideways looks and glares, and under the breath "that's not fair"s. If looks could kill...I would have been dead before I passed through the sliding glass doors on the way out of Target. And then...the boy came home and tied his shoes on the first try. Zip, zap, zoop. Amazing. He can tie his shoes. I should call the church, because surely a miracle has happened. One day he acts like his fingers are broken and he has no concept of how to loop that lace around his finger, and indeed, insists that the act of shoe tying is completely impossible for a boy his age. The next minute he's tying them with no problem at all. Little bugger. He's probably been able to tie his shoes for the last year, but knew what that would mean in terms of getting himself ready for school in the morning.


He was proud of himself, too. A full five minutes after becoming an official shoe-tyer he confides to me that "there are kids in my class who still can't tie their shoes!" with a roll of his eyes, as if to tell me how infantile some classmates are. Well, maybe they just don't love Legos like Liam.


And yes, I realize it is bribery. Say what you want. Mission Accomplished!!