Good job for....breathing....

Wow, it was a long day. I must admit I was met with less resistance than I anticipated regarding the television. We stayed super busy, and I was able to redirect his attention adequately. However, the sticker chart.....yikes. It looks like this....

It's super primitive and requires very little interpretation. Essentially if he does ANYTHING positive he will get a sticker. Once it's full, he gets a prize. I decided that initially I would be very liberal with the stickers and reward him for minuscule acceptable behaviors....saying please, petting Crockett gently, etc. While I realize there are kinks in any new system, the chart was a disaster. A run down of the problems....
1. He did absolutely nothing worthy of a reward in his first hours of wake time. He was defiant from the word go. It was as if he knew I was hoping for success, and he wanted to watch me crash and burn :) I simply wanted him to do ONE rewarding thing so that I could even explain the chart. Finally I conceded and gave him a sticker for eating his breakfast. I might as well have given him a sticker for....breathing.
2. Once he was awarded a sticker he didn't want to put it on the chart. "Put it on my hand", "Put it on my back" (seriously??) , "I want the frog sticker, not the turtle"....."Take it off the paper!!", etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
3. If he truly has to complete 40 positive tasks before receiving an award, my dollar store prizes are going to expire and his favorite t.v. shows will all be canceled.
Of course sergeant daddy thinks the system has no flaws and he needs to wait it out. Although Jack only received four stickers all day, John wasn't convinced he even deserved those :)

On the bright side....we only had one major meltdown today. We made it through an entire trip to Target (toy isle included....for birthday party presents) without any crying, whining, or defiance. He ate very well at all his meals without his usual distraction of t.v. We read about a million books, and he even allowed James to sit and look at the pictures too. We walked all the way to the mailbox with Crockett on a leash, and he held my hand the whole time and only choked Crockett once we got home. All in all, day one was a success-ish.

Lastly, my favorite part of the day....We made a magazine collage of things that he likes with glue sticks and tape. It's pretty comical that I used an US Weekly and we were still able to find relevant items....a car, a butterfly, the letter J, an orange and a pear (from a vodka ad), a puppy dog, a watch, and a picture of Mel B in a black triangle bikini....."looks just like Mommy", he said. "That's right angel, it sure does." This is how I felt.