Tonight as I tucked Amos into bed I praised him over and over again for having such a good day!  The thing that we are noticing around here is that Amos knows when he gets a bad attitude, gets pouty, refuses to do stuff, and gets sad at the whole world.  He feels it, but I honestly don't think he knows how he got there or how to get out.  I mean I can usually tell when we're going to have a bad day.  It's kinda like you can smell the smoke and you know that the fire is is close by.  Usually an every day request to do a chore or help out or do homework can lead to a downward spiral.  Correction.  Discipline.  Those are triggers.  That's where we are his parents are trying to learn what exactly brings these moments on and how we can do things to guard him of them.

I kissed him and praised him for not getting sad, for not refusing to do his homework, reading without complaining, helping mom pick up clothes, and for not saying mean words to mommy.  He smiled so big and gave me a big kiss.

I told him that I know it's hard to make good choices, and I was super proud of him today for making SO many of them.

He nodded, got real serious and told me that yes it is hard, but he was going to have a great day at school tomorrow and then asked if he could have a new hot wheels car.

Love that kid.  It's days like this that I see his sweet heart and I know that he's happy here and is trying so hard.

When the hardness of tomorrow comes, I will remember today.