"Skyler has been THE BEST patient for her age I have ever had in my entire life. She was actually better than most 12 year olds!"

Well I was all beaming and smiling and so proud of my little angel. I praised and praised her and told her what a good girl she had been. She left with her little baggie of goodies she gets when she goes to the dentist. She was given a new Disney Princess toothbrush, some Mickey Mouse toothpaste, a tooth bracelet (um yeah, weird), a plastic snake, and some stickers. Yes, Girlfriend racked up. All of these goodies came in a little plastic baggie with various cartoon figures on them. I kind of glanced at the bag and saw Spiderman, some Power Rangers and The Incredibles.

She and I then get out into the van and the first thing she always does when she gets in the van is to put her headphones on. We have a DVD player in the van and she likes to watch cartoons. No matter how far we are going, even if it's just down the street, Girlfriend wants you to turn the DVD player on. So unless she has had a privilege taken away (television privileges are usually one of the first privileges she loses if she is bad), I allow her to watch the DVD player when we are running about town.

So we are cruising down the highway heading back to our hometown (because her dentist is in the next town over) and she starts asking me to change the DVD. Now she KNOWS that Mommy doesn't change the DVD's while she is driving. I have to stop or at least be at a red light or something to change out DVDs. I mean you have to dig out the folder with the DVDs in it, pull the DVD out, push the button to get the other DVD out, put the other back in the folder... You get the idea. Anyway, I just don't think it's safe to be doing all of that while I'm driving down the interstate.

So I calmly explain to her that I will change the DVD when we are stopped. I've just put in Annie, so I know it's not the end of the DVD or anything. Skyler just wants me to change the DVD just because she wants to watch something different. So she starts murmuring something and I don't really hear her. Then she gets louder and DEMANDS that I put in some blah blah blah video. I didn't understand what she was asking for and besides, Girlfriend was DEMANDING, not asking in a polite manner. So I explained to her that I was NOT stopping to change the DVD and if she didn't lower her voice, and stop talking to me that way to me, I was going to turn the television off! Well then Girlfriend loses it. She starts screaming, "I WANT TO WATCH, BLAH, BLAH..."

I'm still not understanding what she is asking for. But she is screaming it and kicking the back of my seat. Oh HELL NO! Uh-uh. Momma don't play that game sister! She and I had a round of the kicking the back of my seat, throwing her shoe and hitting me in the head episode last year. She she starts kicking the back of my seat and screaming and I am just about to lose it. So I slam shut the video screen and turn off the DVD player and she just loses it.

So we travel the next 15 minutes or so with her screaming at the top of her lungs for me to turn the television back on, all the way to school. Once we get to school it takes me a good 10 minutes to get her calmed back down enough where I can take her into school. I finally realized what she had been asking for the whole time. She had seen the picture of the Incredibles on her little baggie and she wanted me to put her Incredibles DVD in. Geeze! All that drama over that!

She still went into school crying because I told her she had lost her television privileges for the rest of the day. I explained to her that if she acted bad at school or if she acted bad when I picked her up that afternoon, she would also lose her gymnastics privilege for that day.

So I head on to work, already late because of the dentist appointment. I leave early that afternoon (as I always do on Tuesday afternoons because I take Skyler to gymnastics) to go pick Skyler up for gymnastics. Normally I pick her up, take her home to have her bath and we head to gymnastics. This particular day I was really busy and didn't get to leave work as early as normal and I also had to pick Chase up and take him with us because Jonathan was going to come home and mow our 2 1/2 feet tall grass. And no, I am not kidding. Our grass hadn't been mowed since mid July, but that is a story I won't even bother getting into at the moment.

So I was taking both of them with me and I had to get her dressed and run down into the valley and pick up Chase and then drive ALL THE WAY across town to where her gymastics are held.

So when we finally make it to gymastics with about 5 minutes to spare before she starts, she starts smart-mouthing me in the car. Now I can't even remember what it all started over, but she was being mouthy and not very nice in the car because she was already pissed that she lost her television privileges. So she ended up getting upset and started crying as we were getting out of the car. So we went back and forth for the next 15 minutes of whether or not she was going to even be allowed to go into gymnastics. She would start into the building, start crying, get mad, I would get mad. You get the picture. In the middle of all of this Chase is sitting in his stroller looking at the two of us like we are COMPLETE lunatics.

We finally head into the building and she is still crying and sniffling a bit. But she makes it in and misses the first 10 minutes or so, but has a pretty good practice.

But then it was time to leave.... I usually let her play on the equipment for 10 or 15 minutes or so after practice is over. She likes jumping on the trampolines, running around, etc. with her friends. So I told her she could play for 15 minutes and then we had to go home. Well explaining to a 3 year old that they can only do something for 15 minutes, well you know how that goes. So she goes off and does her thing for the next 15 minutes or so. When her time was up I told her to come on, it was time to go. Then she starts her drama again,

"But Moooommmmyyy, I want to stay and play. All my friends are still playing and I want to stay!"

No amount of my getting down on her level and calmly explaining to her that we had to go home would get her to calm down. So after 5 or so minutes of me trying to calm her down, I ended up just picking her little butt up and carrying her out of the building kicking and screaming all of the way. This was after we had went into the building with her crying. So I can only imagine what those people thought of us. So here I am carrying her as she is kicking and screaming, pushing Chase in his stroller with the other hand, trying to open doors, etc. I'm sure we were a real sight to see.

We get out to the car and she is still kicking and screaming. So I put them both in the van and she is still losing her sh-- and Chase is again looking at us like we are crazy. So we cruise down the road towards home with her kicking and screaming and threatening to kick the back of my seat, threatening me that she won't give me any "luv fest" (I'll explain that one on another day) when we go to bed tonight... Well you get the point. Well I knew by this time I was going to lose it, so I just turned up the radio to drown out her screaming. Well she TOTALLY lost her sh-- then.

So we get home and Jonathan is still mowing the yard and she is still screaming and Chase is still looking at us like we are insane, hormonal women... Its then I notice that the little spitfire has chewed apart her shoes! Yes, she has chewed her shoes into little bitty pieces. Well they were actually flip-flops, but you get the picture. I guess in her anger she was tearing at her shoes with her teeth as she was screaming threats at me in the back of the van.

I tell her to get her little hiney into the house and if I hear one more threat or one more scream that she is going to lose every privilege I can think of! So she runs in the house and runs upstairs and flings herself onto the upstairs bed and boo-hoos for the next 30 minutes or so. I pick up the itty bitty pieces of her flip flops and throw the things into the trash.

I give Chase a bath and put him to bed and she is still crying. Jonathan comes in and asks what's going on and I just lost my sh--. I started yelling and screaming and saying I'm tired of it. Three days a week I bust my ass to get her to various activities that she enjoys. But I'm tired of it. I mean Girlfriend is only 3 years old and is into more crap than I was into when I was 15!

He finally calms her down and she comes to apologize and tell me she is sorry she was a bad girl, etc. And she also says she understands she has lost her television privileges, but can she still play with her toys. I tell her she can play, but that her television privileges have been lost for several days. She takes this in stride and goes to play with her toys and all is well in the house for the rest of the day.

I guess by the next day she was finally over her "Day from Hell." I had no problems out of her yesterday. It was her last swimming lesson and I must say she passed with flying colors. She has now been passed on to the next session. I don't think we are going to do another round of swimming lessons at the moment. Three days a week of running is just too much. She has 3 more gymnastics classes and then we are done with those for awile to. I'm tired of the rushing home and running around like a chicken with my head cut off taking her to her various activities. I think it's time we just sat at home and "chilled" out like a normal family for awhile.

Geeze, I know that was a long and rambling story and if you made it down this far, well your just damn crazy! he he he Just kidding.

I have lots more to talk about, but I think this entry has been long enough for today. Hope everyone is doing great and I'll be back later!