Claire can tie her shoes ...

and her roller skates!!! Independently. Whoo-hoo!!!

I will take a time out from my celebratory dance to admit to something. I bribed her. Yes I did.

Not only her .. but her older siblings as well. You see, Claire is a bit of a middle child. I apologize if you don't believe in that whole "birth order" thing ... but I've lived it ... and around here ... it's the gospel.

The middle child in Claire manifests itself in a little bit of a confidence problem and a little bit in the "just tell me what to do so I don't have to exert a lot of effort in thinking about it" phenomena. She also really loves to do things on her own time schedule ... which is a bit more of a problem now that an ENTIRE day of Kindergarten fills her dance card five days per week.

Other kids in the class have begun to tie their shoes. She has to ask one of her sibs (or me) to tie her roller skates ... worn every day. It was starting to irk her .. but not enough to really do much about it.

Hence the bribery. She has asked for a pillow pet forever. For. Ever. We bargained. Tie your shoes ... get a pillow pet. Deal signed. Pinky sworn.

We tried. We cried. We gave up.

I realized I had to bring in the big guns. Emma and Grayson. I tried appealing to their Christian sides. Jesus would most certainly want them to help their sister. That worked. For a day.

So I bribed them. Don't judge me. Whoever succeedes in helping their sister tie her shoes ALSO gets a pillow pet. Or the cash it would cost. Minus shipping and handling (yep... Emma asked).

In three short days ... she has learned. It's not fast ... it's not yet automatic. But I no longer have to do it. To me, that's worth a few pillow pets. And you should see my middle child smile.