Bella's Boot Camp

Along with the first day of summer came the first summer "freak out" for my nephew Trey Brockbank. Trey is 7 years old and is the sweetest boy in the world. He has an imagination that can keep you entertained for hours and is so fun to be with. However, he being Megan's third child he has a way of disrupting an afternoon at the beach with a lovely little tantrum.
Megan called my mom and was worrying about how her family's summer was going to turn out with Trey freaking out whenever he got frustrated. After hearing some of my mom's great advice I decided to add some of my own.
I told Megan that I wanted to come pick Trey up to stay with me for a few weeks at my version of Military School...hence the name, "BELLAS BOOT CAMP!" She thought it would be a great help and even though she'd miss him terribly she was willing to try it. In talking with her we wanted to make sure that he didn't think he was getting rewarded for misbehaving by getting to go stay with Aunt Bella. So I told Megan to make it sound like it was going to be a bunch of hard work and discipline. Well after realizing what he was in for Trey wasn't that thrilled to come to my house. He started calling it, "Boob Camp" (not in reference to my chest...but in reference to being a whiner...geez you perverts get your minds out of the gutter!!!) and said he would refuse to get in the car.
Surprisingly when I drove up to his house this morning, his bag was packed and he was all ready to go. He got a little teary eyed when he said by to his siblings and his mother. You would have thought he was going off to prison or something. Well on the way back from San Diego I began to talk with him about some of the things we were going to work on together. We are really trying to focus on him realizing that he is in charge of his own emotions and he can make the choice to react to others in a good way or in a negative way. And we are also focussing on him listening the very first time he is told to do something.
He really is such a good and sweet boy. Today we already had a lesson learned and a time out given. I have to say I was surprised at how quickly he recognized why I gave him a time out and that the consequences he receives for making a wrong choice aren't an excuse to react with a tantrum!
I love being able to spend this time with him. It's fun for me to be an Aunt that gets to be a pretend mom for a second or two.