This Girly

This girly can stir soooooo many emotions in me.  Some days I just want to squeeze her "until her guts come up" (that's a good thing ;-), and other days I just want to run down the road screaming at the top of my lungs.  Some days I want to pinch her because she's being SO cute, and other days I want to pinch her just to release some frustration from one of her many fits or when she tries my patience (which I'm convinced she really likes to do).  But, for all those undercover secret Child Protection Service agents out there, don't worry....I don't do any of the above....I just want to.  Usually instead I just cry or smile depending on the situation.

Today was a good day.  I feel like I should report to blog-land on those too.  It's only been a week since our crazy morning but I feel like we've come a MILLION miles since then.  That's the funny thing about kids.  One minute you are amazed and the next minute you are in tears and locking yourself in the bedroom to silence the chaos.  

After watching a few episodes of Super Nanny on Hulu this past weekend, I decided to try some different approaches to parenting.  Not necessarily everything she was doing on TV but more than anything it just got me thinking about being more consistent and eliminating idle threats just because I was too tired to do anything else.

Fast forward to last night.  A pre-school night.  Addison and I picked out her school clothes just like normal and I told her I had a new task for her that ONLY big girls can do.  Her job was to wake up in the morning, and put her OWN school clothes on BEFORE she came to wake me up.  Novel idea eh?  I do not enjoy being woken at 6:30 just to watch her put her clothes on while she gripes at me and throws fits.  I'll be honest, when I was practicing the routine with her on her new big girl task, I only half believed she could do it.  It's one thing to say she can when she's wide awake, but I was convinced she would change her tune when she woke up and was still groggy.  MUCH to my surprise, I was laying in bed at 6:30 and guess who walked in?  A fully clothed and HAPPY Addison!  I jumped out of bed in shock.  I asked Daddy (who was already getting ready) how exactly the events unfolded and who got her dressed.  He assured me that he saw her bedroom light on and she was dressing herself without waking anyone up.  She just asked for his help on her costume (she got to wear her halloween costume to school today).  I was astonished.  She did it!  She listened and she did it!  Wahoo!  I was happy, she was happy, and we had PLENTY of time this morning to get everything else done and get to school on time.  I think I praised her about 142 times this morning alone.  I'm still sitting here quite amazed that it worked.  Don't get me wrong....we did have to experience one time out this morning but it was smooth and still such a huge improvement.  See!  Being a Mom doesn't have to be hard all the time!!  I'm so excited for what our future holds.  Especially for a soon-to-be "daily routine chart" that includes pictures of her doing tasks. Stay tuned for that one.  Yay.  

Even in the midst of our awesome morning, she chose to serve me and Jonas, and she did everything cheerfully.  She is such a good girl.  I just love that she is a "Good Mawitan" even over a week after we talked about it.  I love that she is a rule follower too.

On top of making me happy, she can also make me laugh.  Here's a few reasons why.

"Good Mawitan" Update...So in my previous post I mentioned that she and Daddy did a secret service of unloading the dishwasher.  Well after reading the post, Daddy corrected me of the events.  HE was the one who unloaded the dishwasher.  She was the one who decided to take part of the credit and run and put her little signature toy in by his as well.  She never lifted a finger on that service.  But, she has done many on her own since then so I let it slide. ;-)

We've recently entered the land of make-believe and pretend friends.  Addison tells me most days that she has a little sister.  In the beginning I thought she was confused.  I told her um, nope Jonas is a boy and therefore a little brother.  She kept telling me otherwise.  Apparently she does have a pretend little sister.  Her name is "Aleekah" apparently.  Oh and it's also the name she gives all her baby dolls that she asks me to babysit for her during the day.  I love the land of pretend.  I'm always a willing participant because I love to see her imagination first-hand.

She truly loves her brother (her real one ;-).  One of my favorite things is to hear them laughing and giggling with each other in the bedroom while they play together.  She alone can get him to laugh his deepest belly laughs.  Dad and I have never been this successful even.  He adores her and she adores him too.  I'm convinced everyone needs a sibling for this reason alone.  I hope they can always be best friends.  I realize they will have their squabbles now and then just like siblings do but I hope they always know how much the other one loves and looks up to them.  Yesterday, I snuck in to take a peek while they were playing and found Addison reading to Jonas.  It's not the first time it's happened but it ALWAYS makes my heart smile.