Behavior chart part 2

After Emily's terribly disappointing wheel spin last week, I was nervous when Damien finally reached 100 on Saturday. He spun the wheel, and ta-da!!..........ice cream. I braced myself for refusal, crying, begging for something else, but no. My good boy just said
"Cool, ice cream!"

We went last night, just the two of us. We debated the whole ride over about the number of scoops this reward was worth. Usually one is plenty, but I was willing to go for two since this was special. He wanted 3. I knew he probably couldn't eat that much and warned him that if he did he'd probably end up puking it back up, and who wants regurgitated mint chocolate chip? Nobody, that's who. But I finally relented and let him try.

He skipped around Baskin Robbins picking out his flavors while the teenager behind the counter waited with eyebrow cocked holding his giant waffle cone. She must have thought I was the most over indulgent parent ever, cheering him on...
"Sure, whichever ones you want, it's your ice cream...yeah you can have toppings."
I tipped her 2 bucks.

The result was one monstrocity of a drippy ice cream cone with neon ice cream and one happy kid.




I got myself a kid cone and we ate outside on a bench next to a fountain. I ended up dumping two scoops of "weird tasting" ice cream in the trash so Damien could get at his old favorite mint chocolate chip, but I never said "I told you so." The sugar eventually got to us and we ended up running around the fountain and doing "pretend ballet" moves on top.

A homeless man about 60 was sitting in the corner near a building watching us, and I found myself wondering what he was thinking. Did he have fun carefree outings with his mom when he was a boy? What choices or circumstances had brought him to where he is now? Where would my little boy end up? I just soaked up every smile, every giggle, and prayed for the best.