The Trippy Three's

I don't want to call them terrible- but they ARE a trip. It's like Space Mountain- you can't tell what's coming up next: a slow trip up or a free-fall down?! But make sure your harness is strapped tight. Or at least mine ought to be. I'm not sure that anyone gets quite the ride that Mommy does. Of course, that's always the case for Mommies, it seems.

The good news is that she sure loves me... and everyone! She just loves to pat, hug, kiss, cuddle and show affection and nothing makes me feel better. Oh she FEELS everything. Quite dramatic. And she cries when she knows she's in the wrong (just like her mother always used to do). But smiles and love are one minute and the next is when I ask her, for instance, to go to the bathroom so we can brush her teeth and she looks up at me with a defiant glare and says, "I'm not gonna do it" or, more simply, "No!"

That little attitude just about sends me through the roof!

Sassy or what?

She also has a cold all of a sudden and it's messing up her naps and sleep a bit (waking a little earlier than her normal time) and I think that's adding to her moodiness. I know we're just at a bump right now, but with it going on for days on end when Michael's been out of town so much, it just builds up. Of course, when you don't ask her to do anything or everything is going her way, she's not like that. ...so that's something. Ha!

In other news, everything is forever related in distant time to whether it's after or before Easter, after or before the pool is open, after or before the beach, etc. She's already told us that she wants Papa and Diddy to jump her in the waves. Also that she wants her own, personal, green escalator on the beach. Mimi had to break the bad news to her that she would have to give up that particular dream.

We have had fun this week: bathing Commissioner, chasing Commissioner, coloring, painting Libby's fingers and toes, "making tea" and dinner, doing puzzles, etc.

She's also being difficult again about saying please and thank you. However, when she hears me or another family member say, "thank you," she'll ask, "What did you say?" "Why?" So, since she does have to have a reason for EVERYTHING, I'm hoping the reasons will start sinking in and she'll start saying it more on her own.

But then most of the time, she's SO loving and sweet.... like this with her beloved pup.

And tonight at dinner, she subtracted three from ten and told us the answer was, "SEVEN!" Smart as a whip. The last few weeks they've been doing circus-themed stuff at school and she came home with a giant clown tie, a funny lip-whistle toy, a lion mask, cotton candy, popcorn in a cute box, and a photo of her in a clown wig. AND they did a hot chocolate craft today and hot chocolate was their snack. So, my question is: when do I get to go back to preschool?!