Feeding the Drama Llama

Oh this morning that Drama Llama showed up and James fed it a lot of drama.  He likes running, but some days he doesn't want to put in the effort.  He would rather just run a few steps and then walk for 10 minutes then run a few more steps.  Today was one of those days.  We had moaning and groaning.  He was running like a little old man.  He complained the whole time.  Yet when I asked him if he wanted to stop, he got mad at me.  I don't get 9 year old boys sometimes.

We made it through a 25 minute run/walk, but the Drama Llama was right there with us the whole time.  River was just wanting to run, but she had to wait on James.  She was not a happy dog.  In fact when we got home she was still ready to move.  Usually we get home and she crashes, but not today.

Now to be fair, James did need new running shoes which we got today.  But he could have won an Academy Award for best dramatic actor this morning.  Maybe he was being filmed and that was what he was going for.  Who knows.

The rest of the day went well.  We did our cleaning and our errands.  He went to Michael's for the arts and crafts thing.  We had lunch and then we took all 3 dogs out for a walk.  He wore his new running shoes to start breaking them in.  He and Mulder ran most of the time and there were no complaints. 

I told him that he doesn't have to be the best or the fastest, but if he wants to do this, he has to put in the work and put some honest effort into it.  We call it feeding the Drama Llama because it's easy to remember and to cue him when he's being overly dramatic about anything.  James has that tendency to overreact to everything and blow it all out of proportion. We are trying to teach him not to do that.  He is getting better, but every so often he brings the Drama Llama with him.

We talked about it and he wanted to know what he could do when he's at his mom's and his cousin is watching him to help with his running. I gave a few really easy things and showed him a couple of great Runner's World videos.  He likes the idea of it, but I don't know if he's allowed outside when his mom's not home.  I can understand that.  Next week he's with us and will run 3 days with me.  We are doing the Lord of the Bling virtual run and he's excited about that.  That coupled with the new shoes should help.

I now understand why my parents got frustrated when I would get overly dramatic.  It really is quite a production.