My Drama Queen

I'm starting to think that Grace is very advanced. Let me explain. Although she will not be 2
until November, Grace has already advanced to the "terrible twos." This child has become my FIT QUEEN. You never know what's going to set her off. Here are a few examples...

A couple of weeks ago, after a WIC appointment, we still had a little time before Scott was going to be getting home, so I decided to run to the mall to see if I could get a price adjustment on any of the clothes I had bought at the Gap 2 weeks previously. I knew we were cutting it close on time, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. And of course, being the good mom that I am, I figured dangling the bribe of an ice cream cone in front of my kids if they behaved would help to make the trip smoother. And of course, with my luck, I was stuck with the most incompetent sales clerk I've ever encountered in my life. Seriously, what is so difficult about a price adjustment? She had to leave us twice to go and ask her manager how to do something and I swear she was gone for like 10 minutes each time. As the minutes were ticking by, I was realizing there was no way we were going to make it home in time to try and make something for dinner. Especially if we were going to get those ice cream cones. Fortunately, Ethan provided me with the opportunity to yank that bribe out from under them as he was running all around the store, in and out of clothes while we waited for the sales clerk to get back. When he finally ran into another little girl and pushed at her as he did so, I was able to tell them no more ice cream cones when we were done (incidentally, in reference to the previously posted endeavors to teach kindness, when I asked Ethan if he had pushed that little girl, he looked at me for a second with his head tilted to the side and then said, "no mom, I said 'Hi!'" Apparently the next lessons we will be working on are honesty). Anyway, back to the story at hand. When we were finally done at the Gap, I felt really bad about not letting them have any treat, because after all, we were there forever, and they were relatively well-behaved, so we went to Cold Stone and I let them get a sample spoon of ice cream. Nice.

So, here's where we get to the Grace part. Once I pushed the stroller to our car, I took her sample spoon from her so I could unbuckle her and get her in the car seat, and I made the mistake of eating some of her ice cream to keep it from melting off the side. WOW. She was NOT happy about that. Did it matter that I pretended to put the ice cream back on the spoon? No. Did it matter that I gave it right back and tried to put it in her mouth to shut her up? No. In fact, nothing I did helped as she proceeded to throw a fit at the top of her lungs till she was red in the face and hardly breathing and her lips were turning blue all the while I'm trying to get her and Ethan buckled in their carseats so we can hurry and get home and try to scrounge something up for dinner. Well, as I was driving, I made the split-second executive decision to go to Wendy's on the way home, and by the time we got to the drive-thru, Grace had quieted down. At this point, I turned around and patted her little leg and told her I was sorry and that I loved her and this set her off anew. She KICKED my hand away from her legs and wouldn't let me touch her or look at her as she picked right back up where she left off with her screaming fit. Which continued pretty much the rest of the car ride home. Lesson #1 learned -- DO NOT TAKE GRACE'S FOOD WITHOUT ASKING HER FIRST. And also, don't try to comfort her before she's ready to be comforted.

The next incident will be a little shorter. On Friday, I took the kids to the library (where we haven't gone pretty much at all this summer) and I gave Ethan and Grace some crackers to eat for a snack in the car on our way there. Well, once we got to the library, I took the crackers away explaining that we can't eat in the library and Grace geared herself up for another rant and rave. For the first 15 minutes we were there, you would have thought I had her straitjacketed in her stroller or something for all the fuss she was putting up. She snapped out of it in like a split-second as soon as she saw a giant stuffed Elmo perched in a window sill by the story circle. Then for the rest of the outing she was happy as a clam dragging this Elmo everywhere she went. Lesson #2 learned -- DO NOT TAKE GRACE'S FOOD BEFORE SHE IS FINISHED. I'm beginning to notice a pattern here.

For, the last story, I have an actual picture of the fit. Before lunch today, Grace remembered that there was a bag of tootsie rolls hidden in the cabinet and decided she wanted one instead of lunch. So, after I told her she had to wait until she ate her sandwich, she proceeded to throw an all-out fit for the next 15 minutes straight, until finally I snapped it out of her by taking a bite of her sandwich (I guess I didn't learn the first lesson very well) and she then switched her fit to wanting that bite of food back from me. After I gave it back, and she unsuccessfully tried to re-attach to her sandwich, she must have realized that she really was hungry and she stopped crying and started eating. Lesson #3 learned -- WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD, DON'T MESS WITH GRACE.

(watch the fit unfold)


(aren't I a mean mom to try and take pictures when she's so unhappy?)

Alright, enough of these anecdotes. I'm sure you all have your own stories of children throwing fits and you don't want to hear anymore of mine!

We had a lovely 4th of July. Mostly because Scott didn't have to work Monday either, and he's finally done with those independent study classes, so all of a sudden we feel like we have so much more time! Scott decided to take the kids on an outing one of the mornings at the crack of dawn to see the hot air balloons that were part of the city's freedom festival. The kids really loved it, and I really loved sleeping in while he took them. Here are some pictures of their fun.

(something a little more interesting than balloons)

On the 4th of July itself, we went up to Rock Canyon Park for a family gathering on Scott's grandma's side, and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely -- mostly because they found a bucket of water to play with. I'll post a few pictures of that as well.








Well, I don't really have anything much else to report right now. This Scott's last week of work and my mom and youngest brother and sister are coming in town this week, so hopefully this will provide many more stories for me to share.

On a side note, does anyone else think LC is pathetic for sticking around with Jason? And is anyone else as excited as we are for this summer's All-Star season of Big Brother? Until next time...