Report Card

If I were to give myself a report at the end of each day on how I did as a mom that day, today would not have been my 4.0 day. It went a little something like this:

Fun Play: A
Life Skills: C
Positive/Constructive Discipline: C
Patience: F-

Have you seen that commercial on PBS with the mom at a frenzied dinner time? The kids are crying, the oven is smoking, a pot is boiling over, and enter husband with the line, "What's for dinner?" That smooth male voice comes on and reminds us that our kids learn to handle stress from watching our example. Well of course the mom, about to explode, lets out a big breath, and smiles. She hugs her husband, plays with the baby, and I'm sure they end up ordering a pizza for dinner.

Well, I didn't give Mierae a very good example of how to handle stress and exercise patience today. I was doing fine until after Jolie went down for her nap. I was determined Mierae would take an early nap too. Afterall, she went to bed at 11:00 p.m. last night and got up at 7:00 a.m. this morning. She was acting tired when friends were over, so I assumed she'd go down fine.

We had read stories with Jolie before Jolie went to bed, but that didn't provide any sort of calming effect since Mierae just wanted to climb on the back of the couch, or on me. After Jolie went to bed I fed Mierae lunch, and she ate well, so I thought for sure that would help her fall asleep and sleep well. She had to go to the bathroom, so I thought it was perfect that she was going then, so she wouldn't wet the bed again at naptime. She likes me to "go away" now when she goes on the toilet. When I came back to check on her, she had decided to wipe herself, after letting a pile of toilet paper unravel all over the floor. Okay, no problem. At least it wasn't the whole roll.

We read stories again, created a great soothing atmosphere, and of course, mom fell asleep. Mierae did not. I woke up when I heard jostling in the kitchen. I walked in to find all the mushrooms from the fridge piled on the floor and a puddle in front of the refrigerator. "Mierae, what did you spill?" She turned her body so I could see the big wet spot on her pants. Off we marched to the tub to add her wet clothes to the ones already piled up from yesterday. Okay, so I didn't catch her because I was asleep. There are still accidents after potty training is "done." At least now she really won't have an accident when she takes her nap.

Round three of storytime didn't go so well. "Mommy, you read this one and I'll read this one." "Can't Mommy read you a story?" "No, I just want to read one all myself." Okay, maybe by some miracle she'll lull herself to sleep with her own story. "Mierae, if you don't want Mommy to read to you, I'm going to go out. When you're done with your story, lie down and go to sleep." Oh, if only it were that easy. Even with her "Okay, Mom," I couldn't help but count the minutes until I heard her doorknob click. I kept thinking, "She has GOT to be tired. Hello! She went to bed at 11:00 last night!!" By then it had been almost two hours since we first started trying. Still not too late in the afternoon for a nap, but I was giving up. On went the movie. I'd just have to keep Mierae awake during her drowsy time at 5:00 p.m.

Eric called right then, and as we were chatting about how the day was going, I glanced over at Mierae to see another dark, round spot on her shorts. And yes, I yelled. We marched off again to the tub, to add again to the pile that I was sure was going to take down the drying rod.

I was mad. I let all the little things that had happened pile up, along with not getting my break, being groggy from falling asleep earlier, not having read my scriptures, and Mierae not doing what I wanted her to do. "I have to go," I told Eric. "Do you want me to come home?" "No. I have to go. I love you, bye." And I washed Mierae down, again. I pried her off the handle on the wall which she was climbing up on, again. I got clean, dry clothes for her, again. I wondered where she had her accident, since I didn't see a dark spot on the carpet. I looked around and found the dark spot on the chair. And the ottoman. And the blanket on the ottoman. Grrrr.

I tried to find Mierae to put on her clothes and when she ran away from me, again, it came out. At least a dozen times at the top of my voice, I'm sure, I yelled, "I am SO mad!! I am SO mad!! I am SOoooo mad!!" And then I started sobbing. I had grabbed Mierae and put her on my lap, and she just looked at me as I cried. "Please go on the toilet, Mierae. You're a big girl, you know how. Please tell me when you have to go so we don't have any more accidents." I silently hoped that this weepy display would give Mierae all the motivation she needed to never have another accident for the rest of her life.

Accident #3 was about two hours later.

Thank goodness Eric had not listened to me when I told him not to come home. I'm sure he left what he was doing right where it was and took off running to rescue me. Knowing him the way I do, I shouldn't have even thought he wouldn't come. He was home less than 10 minutes after we got off the phone. And he cleaned up accident #3.

To get over a very unhappy afternoon, Eric announced that we should go out to dinner. He hardly ever says that. Mierae wanted fries, so we busted out the Entertainment book and found the closest place that had fries. Thank goodness Mierae did not fall asleep in the car while we were out.

To round out the fun of eating out, we stopped at the playground. We were the only ones there. And we had a ball. It's been a long time since Eric has come with us to the playground, and it's definitely so much more fun when Daddy plays too. The highlight of my day was playing on the slide with Mierae. She was climbing up, I was sliding down. Our collisions were met with lots of limb entanglement, static electricity, and laughter.

At least I got an A for fun play today. I hope I can drop my lowest score in Patience. At least it can only go up from here.