Lately, every evening when I arrive at RS to pick up the girls, I end up clenching and holding my breath before entering Arden’s classroom.  Is it a horrible attack of gas?  A really bad smell?  NO!  It’s me waiting to find out if Arden has been “thumbs up” or “thumbs pointing toward hell”. 

Here’s the thing about The Ard.  You have to love her. She’s funny, she’s silly, she loves to be a goofball.  She’s got personality oozing out of her ears.  It’s a good thing, too, because she also has deviljuice oozing out of her ears right along with the personality. 

A couple of days ago, I went to pick the girls up, and headed to Arden’s room first.  Ms. Christine, Arden’s teacher, happened to be in the lobby while I was entering my super-secret security code that gives me access to the door.  I asked her how Arden did today.  Ms. Christine sighed and shook her head.  “We had a difficult time this morning,” she said.  “I’m not going to lie to you.” 

Morning snack in the dining car was cream cheese on a bagel.  Arden swears she loves bagels, but what she really loves is just the cream cheese (Lily, on the other hand, won’t get within 10 feet of cream cheese).  She spent the first 5 minutes licking the cream cheese off the bagel.  Then she asked Ms. Christine for more.  She told her no, she needed to eat her bagel (which is what I would have done).  Arden decided tha she didn’t like Ms. Christine’s lip, so she threw her bagel down on the floor in protest.  I’m surprised she didn’t stage a coup to overthrow the cream cheese dictators in the dining car, but I’m sure that will happen later - when she learns to spell “coup”. 

I lamented to Christine and Donna, another teacher familiar with Arden’s antics, that she was so incredibly headstrong and willful (no idea where she got it).  They jokingly said, “Leave her with us for two weeks and we’ll return her fixed.”  I know they were just kidding, but I still felt the need to say, “Look, we are strict parents. We don’t let her talk to us that way, or whip bagels at us, or be sassy or throw fits because she doesn’t get her way. We consistently don’t give in.  So I just want you to know that we aren’t letting her run wild at home.”  They both said they didn’t think that, but I’m not sure what someone else is going to do with Arden that we haven’t tried.

Even Donna and Christine talked about how well Arden’s personality would serve her later in life. I added, “Yes, if it’s tempered.” 

I cannot wait to put her in the shirt I got her for her birthday:

I remember thinking I was off the hook when Lily hit three, just to find out that she actually got more tempermental, moody, and sometimes, downright nasty.  Arden is also going through a particularly bad phase right now.  If we have less than 5 fits a night, I feel like I’m on vacation.  I keep reminding myself that she will get better, older, and more able to express herself with words instead of eardrum-rupturing screams.  Please, god, make it hurry.