fashionista

Last week was tough parenting a certain 3 and a half year old. That would explain why I was so pleasantly surprised that a 5 hour trip to the car dealer went smoothly, because every minute with her last week was a challenge. She tested every ounce of my patience. And won. And many times last week I had to hide the tears so that she wouldn't see she had gotten to me.

But the last 2 days have been better, and today picking her up from school was easy and went oh, so smoothly. Hopefully this is a sign that things will be changing for the better, at least for the next couple of weeks, until she wants to test her boundaries and independence in other ways. I'm ok with that, as long as I get breaks of niceness in between.

I have prayed sooo much for understanding and guidance to be a good parent to her, trying not to break her spirit while attempting to get her from point A to point B. You know, like when her brother's school is closing and "yes, we have to go right now."

This morning when I assumed she would still be sick from yesterday, she came in and woke me up saying she wanted to go to preschool. She was already dressed completely from head to toe, ready to go.

It may not look like anything out of the ordinary, but for a girl who typically only wants a t-shirt and jeans, this morning she was dressed to the nines. Zebra-striped headband, turquoise clip, pink beaded necklace (already removed at this point), pink Santa's helper PJ top (yes, from last night), plaid matching shorts and happy face rain boots (used to belong to Loudoun). I was impressed by her selection and her motivation to get ready all on her own and go to school. Big steps.

My favorite thing she does lately? She carries around this little jar filled to the rim with coins, mostly pennies, saying (over and over) "This is our ba-cation money, we're going on a ba-cation soon." She guards it with her life and if even one coin falls out she is so quick to pick it up.

I also adore that she says lellow. Can she say that forever?