When my cousin Cristin is around, I cease to exist for my children. They knew Cristin had said she was coming today, so starting at 7.30 this morning, they began asking me what time she would grace us with her presence. When she showed up around 5 PM tonight, the girls went nuts. Screaming, running, hugging, spazzing - I really didn’t seem them again until bedtime. Cristin validated me, though. Even the Supreme Cristin had difficulty with Arden. She said, “I know you write about it - but it’s nothing until you experience it yourself.” She is SO right!
Arden will eventually be broken of the terrible threes, but it might not be before she breaks Mike and I. By Sunday evening I usually feel pretty fried. How do you explain that EVERYTHING is an issue? She can be maniacally happy one moment, then sheer devil the next. She goes from zero to MEAN in less than 1 second. I just keep telling myself we will get through this. We will. We have to. We are now working in cahoots with Arden’s teacher at Rainbow, doing the same type of reaction when she has her fits (we basically ignore her). It seems to be working a little bit.
This is my punishment for not being a patient person. I was given a child (actually, two) that push my patience and my sanity to the extreme limits. I have become a more patient person in spite of myself.
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We had a good weekend. I slept a lot. I feel like I am never going to “catch up” on sleep after all that work we did. We are gearing up for Bizarre Bazaar here in Richmond in a couple of weeks, but it seems so much easier now since we won’t have to travel. Yesterday we went to a birthday party at a new place in Midlothian that has a lot of inflatables - moon bounces, obstacle courses, slides. Arden and Lily bounced and slid themselves silly. They were SO tired last night. And tonight after all the activity, Lily actually slept through 4 smoke detectors going off simultaneously (I forgot to tell Cristin to run the fan while in the shower - for some reason, the steam sets off all the smoke alarms upstairs). I guess she’s really tired. Arden woke up and just wanted to chat about the “whys” of the noise - why it sounds like that, why it happens, what it’s for. I just kept saying, “It’s fine, honey, go back to sleep.” She’s like me. I should know better. Until an answer satisifies my curiosity, I don’t stop acting. I am a pain in my own butt, it seems.
