What Real Life Is Like

 What do all of these pictures have in common?

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You probably guess it...this little gal!

We've had some very frustrating moments with this little lady.  

Incident number 1: was with the fingernail polish...luckily that one is easy to smell and quickly know that something is not right.  I went downstairs to find Addy and her friend painting the barbie house.  

Incident number 2:  notice the strawberry toothpaste in the picture and the almost empty bottle of body wash.  Well that soap bottle was nearly full before the same duo decided to clean the play dishes and make potions once again in the basement.  This time I could hear them playing and thought they were getting along so well.  Then Mitch stopped in before an appointment here in town and went downstairs and saw the water in the play kitchen sink. As he looked around some more he noticed bowls filled with different mixtures involving soap and toothpaste. It was a mess that motivated us to clean our carpets!

Incident number 3: Earlier in the spring Addy found a little crack in the paint on the front door and started pulling and picking at it.  To her surprise it started pulling off in huge chunks.  So I ended up stripping all the paint off the door and repainting and priming.  It was a long process.  Well it happened again!  Imagine my surprise/irritation to find another chunk of paint missing from the door.  It still makes my blood boil a little bit!

Incident number 4:  Notice the picture with the shoes, how one only has two straps.  I wonder how that happened? Oh the same way the shorts have a little cut out of the bottom.  Scissors. 

It has been such an eventful couple of weeks with lots of yelling and hair pulling(only from my own head).  So I decided it was time to pull out the big guns and I remembered this book we'd been given and started reading it.  I haven't gotten very far but I am really trying to be a more consistent parent when it comes to discipline.  Also I've stopped getting so mad because I realized that gave her the attention she wanted. 

I always thought I was a pretty patient person..hahaha...turns out I was way wrong about that! I just had never really had my patience tested before. 

Shoes and Socks

So this really isn't the best picture of Addy girl but I just have to document one successful moment I've had as a parent!  Since they don't happen all that often.  Notice in the picture how she is wearing 'running' shoes, well she also has socks on under those shoes!  This girl HATES socks especially when she has to wear shoes with them.  Every time I would try and make her wear them it would end in the biggest tantrum ever. So I eventually gave up and in the winter she would wear boots without socks and she would wear sandals to church.  

Well in a few weeks our neighborhood is going on a ward pioneer trek and I really wanted her and Mitch to go.  Problem:  they have to walk about 30 miles.  I knew she was going to need some comfortable shoes.  We went out looking a couple of times and every time came home empty handed because she'd kick the shoe across the room and ripped the sock off her foot.  No fun for me.  

Then we started looking at shoes online and I saw some that had lights. That got her excited.  So before we even left for the store, I had her put socks on her feet so she could adjust to them before we got to the store (one lessons I learned from previous experience). When we got in the store I had her pick out the ones she liked. Honestly I didn't really care how much they cost just so long as she would wear them.  Turns out she tried on lots of different pairs and we left with the first ones she tried on with them on her feet.  It was a miracle.  There was no crying by me or her and the best part...she still wears them!