It comes in waves, the cloud over my brain, the blur that is my perspective, the looming headache. When it does, the patience for the whining wears thin, and the time outs come quickly. On these days, after the 2 o'clock lull, I find myself checking the clock more often, thinking that will make 4:30 come sooner. Thankfully today my relief came at 4:15 instead. Even though it was only 15 minutes, my heart lightly leapt when Ava ran to the door and yelled, "Daddy!"
The day started out fine, the girls woke up after 7, we went to McDonalds with friends where they could get their energy out, and then the struggle of nap time for Jenna began. I would not settle for anything less than her staying in bed during this time. An hour later, after yelling at her for picking her nose and eating it right in front of me, most of the toys that she decided to play with out of her bed got taken out of her room, her nap time friend "blankie" got taken away, the baby gate had gone up so she couldn't close her door, I officially did not care anymore. But at least Ava slept for 2 hours, and Jenna didn't pee on the carpet while she was trapped in her room.
I've come to realize that Jenna also has dumping issues. If a couple crayons fall out of the container, for some reason they all have to get dumped. This also applies to Ava's cheerios that Jenna accidentally knocked over and the dixie cup of paint water that accidentally got knocked over. WHY must the containers be emptied? My sanity could just be spared if she picked up the container where it lay. Maybe I'll try the "freeze!" method as soon as something gets knocked over instead of the blabbering and running over there to try and stop the inevitable.
The latest time out at 4:10 came after Jenna had been told repeatedly not to take her sister's snack, did just that. The timer was set for 4 minutes, she was still in the chair in the middle of the living room when Lance came home, but she had to wait for the usual welcome home hug until the timer went off. It was during these 4 minutes I was on the couch, and I noticed Jenna had a little plush bat that she got from her Grammy for Halloween. Out of nowhere she pointed it at me and made a grunting noise. I could not stop myself...I burst out laughing. While one part of me wanted to scold her for this "attack" on me because she was mad about being in time out, I couldn't help it. Lance asked what she was doing, and of course she was "being a bat."
The evening is approaching, Lance is playing with the girls, Jared is swinging away, and I am writing this in peace and can laugh at my own foolishness of trying to make my kid anything other than that, a kid.
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