hard work

Dawson has a very hard time saving his money. He loves to spend it. He is giving with it too. He is always buying little things out of machines for him and for his brothers when we go to stores. He carries his money around just waiting to find something to spend it on. He has been trying to save up the money for an ipod shuffle for months now. He originally had $50 and was just $5 short a few months ago. He looks at and dreams of those ipod shuffles every time we go to Walmart. Well, over the course of the last few months of saving he has managed to spend more than he saved and now only had $40. He came up with a deal he proposed to me. He said, if you will buy this today, I will give you all the money I have ($40) and then I will work for you to earn the rest of the money. I told him that if he would work 4 hours for me doing all kinds of jobs that would earn him the rest of the money he needed. I told him that I would buy it today, but hold on to it. He could not open it until he earned it. And if he didn't do the work I would keep the receipt to return it. He promised he would do the work. Dallon and I were very skeptical because Dawson usually tries to get out of work promises like this one with complaining/backing out. I warned him that it may take a week to earn it. 4 hours was alot and he may only be able to work 30 min each day. That is usually all he can stand when he works for money (which is probably normal for his age). He assured Dallon and I that he would be working all 4 hours that day. I thought to myself... we'll see how you feel after the first hour buddy. And Dallon gave me the look that meant he was thinking the same thing I was. Dawson showed us. He did work the whole 4 hours... straight. With the right incentive, Dawson has got to be one of the hardest working little 7 year olds out there. He cleaned my bathroom, top to bottom (bathtub, toilet, sink, shower, mirror). He cleaned windows. He took out several bags of trash. He pulled weeds. He matched tons and tons of socks from the laundry. And the list still goes on. I felt almost guilty having him work so long... but I never wanted him to do it in one day. He wanted the ipod so bad and was willing to put in all the hard work in one day to earn it. When he finished his 4 hours and was walking in the door from washing the last window we were all clapping and cheering his name. He was so proud and so bashful too. I am so proud of him for being a hard worker and for finding a way to earn something he wanted so bad. He was so happy with himself too. Here are a few pics from this day.

Dallon was nice enough to work the whole 4 hours with him. Dallon was earning cash, but was working so long to give Dawson support. Dallon mentioned really wanting to stop working at 3 hours but said to me that he wasn't going to quit or it would make Dawson want to. I thought that was very sweet.

This last one just cracked me up. This is not posed. I caught him looking at himself in the mirror dressed like this, and listening to his ipod. He looks 7 going on 17. Here he is rocking out like a bad boy to his ipod that has 3 cd's on it. Toy Story soundtrack, The Backyardigans, and a family favorite Apples & Banana's. He changed clothes 3 times that night just working on the look he was going for.