Cleaning up

So today the boys got out the trains and made a big track and dumped out all the cars and trains and it was a big mess. We told Dallin and Tristan that if they cleaned it all up we would play a game after dinner. Dallin immediately got to work. He is a very motivated child when it comes to playing games. Tristan didn't really care. So I cleaned up the special tracks and Dallin cleaned up the curves and straight pieces. And Tristan was supposed to clean up all the cars and trains. Easy peasy, right? It was for Dallin. He finished in no time at all and Tristan didn't put a single car or train away. I put them all in a pile for him and gave him the bag and bucket they go in and told him that he wouldn't get to eat dinner until he cleaned them up. He is usually more motivated when food is involved, rather than a game. Well... 5 minutes later he was still playing and not cleaning like I asked. He was being so frustrating! So I told him again he couldn't eat until the cars and trains were cleaned up. Dallin heard me say that and asked if that included him and I said no, he did a good job cleaning already. And what did Dallin do? He said Oh! I will help Tristan! This is the boy who had just freaked out because Tristan was on the red chair that doesn't have a scratch. But he wanted to help Tristan clean up. I told him that it was Tristan's job to clean them up and that he didn't need to. But he wanted to. I headed back upstairs telling them that Tristan was to clean the cars, not Dallin. A moment later Dallin and Tristan came back upstairs.

When there was about 2 minutes left on the dinner time I reminded Tristan that he couldn't eat until the toys were picked up. So Chris went back downstairs with him and Dallin went running after them saying I want to help! I will help Tristan! It was so funny. Chris had to tell Dallin repeatedly to let Tristan pick up some of the toys and tell Tristan to pick up some of the toys. It was just so funny to have such differing attitudes and that Dallin was so willing to clean, which I feel doesn't often happen.