Two Boys

I have two boys.

They love video games.

And dirt.

And being loud.

They are definitely two little boys.  They are also two very different boys.

At our church Halloween party the kids were given candy as prizes for the carnival games.  As Alan got each piece I don't think he waited any longer than 30 seconds before putting it in his mouth.  Hyrum however made it through the whole carnival and the truck or treat, before eating a single piece of candy.

This year we have the kids in two different schools.  That means two fall carnivals which can set our family back about $60.  We wanted to support each of the kids equally but were not wanting to spend an arm and a leg.  We told the kids that they had to earn money for tickets at the carnival.  At our house when the kids do extra jobs they can earn a "dollar" that they can turn in for 10 minutes of video game time.  We told the kids that they could instead turn in a "dollar" for a carnival ticket. 

We gave the kids lots of opportunities to earn the tickets.  As soon as Hyrum would earn two or three "dollars" he would ask if he could go play the Wii.  We would remind him of the school carnival coming up to which he would immediately reply "I don't want to go!"  Hyrum wanting the immediate gratification could not wait until the carnival for his enjoyment.  Eventually we told Hyrum that we wouldn't go to his carnival but that we were going to Alan's (Hyrum was OK with this until we drove by his school on the day of the carnival.  Too late!).

When we went to Alan's carnival, Alan had diligently earned a lot of tickets.  He had 3 times as many as Hyrum.  However, as we approached each booth ready to show Hyrum how much fun Alan could have because he had saved his money, Alan kept deciding that each booth was not worth his hard earned tickets and ended up going home with tickets still in his pocket.  Hyrum was not to be deterred and spent the few tickets that he had within minutes.  Hyrum enjoyed every booth he could but we had to twist Alan's arm to get him to spend his tickets.

Two boys.

Two very different boys.