My big girl

I am loving our new morning routine. It goes as follows...

About 6am, or there about, one of the kids creep into our room and let us know that they are awake. I tell them to go potty and to play in their room for a while. For some reason kid #2 hears kid #1 awake, no matter how soundless kid #1 is. Kid #2 wakes up and joins #1 in playing. After about 20 minutes the party moves downstairs. Dave and I are still warm in our beds. Olivia will be toes up for another couple of hours.

We usually end up downstairs when a fight or argument transpires. The first one or 2 goes on without much movement from either Parent. But after about #3 it gets louder and its clear that its time to start Parenting. We take turns each day dragging our tired selves out of bed to resolve the issue. Sometimes we turn on a show and stumble back into bed, others its clear that we won't be able to ignore them any longer, show or no show.

Today was my turn as I heard Ella yelling. Ella is usually the culprit. I pushed the heavy down comforter off of my warm body and walked, sleepily, down the stairs. I expected a scene. With the noise and angry pouts I expected to be met with each Child yelling their side of the story. Who did what, who touched who... the usual. But there Luke was, on the other side of the room. And Ella... playing her Leapster and yelling!

I asked what was going on, to which she replied that the game was hard and she felt frustrated.

"I can't do it , Mommy. I am not good at writing my ABC's!" She yelled.

I tried to console her, asked if I could help. And then, in an instant she screamed, turned the power button off and threw her Leapster across the room. As she did this she yelled, "I hate this game. Im not good. Im just a baby. Im a teeny, tiny little girl who can't do anything big." And she ran into the other room. Im not kidding. And it was all said so dramatically that as she stomped out of the room I couldn't help but crack a little smile, unknowing to her. Okay, it was a big smile.

I went to her. I hugged her and told her that writing the alphabet was hard and would take a lot of practice. I gave her a kiss and asked her if she wanted me to help her.

We picked up the, thankfully, heavy duty game. And I helped her write the letter's K, L, O and E. She did great. She proceeded to do a few on her own while beaming with pride.

And then I told her that she was a very smart and very big girl. And that if she ever threw her Leapster again it would be in time out for a week.

That fuse of her's will be extra fun in about 10 years, no?