Toddlers vs PMS

My sweet babies on picture day

Pretty adorable, despite the attitude

   I have to say, that a strong willed toddler is worse than a woman with PMS any day.  Molly has developed quite the attitude, especially about getting dressed.  Colin is sick today, and he kept me up most of the night with his fever, and his "back mouth" hurting.  Daddy was sick at the beginning of the week, and now the children.  Fabulous.  I am sure it will hit me when it is time to clock into the hospital this weekend.  So, needless to say, my patience was worn thin before I even started to get Molly ready for school.  It was picture day for her...again.  I had to dress her up for pictures on Monday as well.  She and Colin had a brief sibling shoot with the photographer before school, so this is the second day she had to wear a dress into school this week.  And the second day that she refused the dress, and wanted to wear her Rapunzel.  I don't even know if she meant her Rapunzel T-shirt, or her Rapunzel princess dress from Halloween.  Either way, Rapunzel is a "no go" on picture day, so it is a moot point.  After negotiating, bargaining, and finally just wrestling, I got Molly into her Easter dress.  Next came the shoes.  The shoes I bought to match the dress are a little too big.  I discovered this on Monday, so I tried to convince her to wear different shoes today.  She was not having it.  In fact, she refused shoes at all.  I carried her out to her car seat on my hip, and I brought 3 pairs of shoes with me.  I tried again to put shoes on her feet before we left the house, but she would only wear the yellow ones that were too big, and falling off her feet.  I stuffed the other two pairs in her book bag, and apologized to the teacher in the car pool line.  I warned poor Miss Joann about the troublesome shoes and explained about the other pairs in her bag. She was wearing pink sandals at pick up, so I guess Miss Joann's skills of negotiation are better than mine.
      Molly also spent the entire car ride to school completely distressed because her brother was not in the car.  I left Colin at home with daddy, because of his fever and sore throat.  Molly was convinced I had forgotten him, and that I needed to go back and get him.  She even refused her chocolate milk this morning because I bought the Mayfield milk, and that jug is yellow.  It couldn't possibly be milk.  I showed her that it was indeed milk in her sippy cup, but she continued to refuse.  I finally offered a juice box in the car out of desperation.  She changed her mind twice about the flavor she would accept.  All I can say, is that this child is going to be a hot mess when her hormones kick in.  I may need to take about a 5 year vacation in about 11 or 12 years.  She knows how to push my buttons.  She doesn't do it as much with her father, and they don't feed off each other, and escalate the way we do.  My little clone...although, I would like to think I am a little less disagreeable in general :)    The strong will and determination will come in handy later in life.  I can speak from experience on this one.  In the mean time, I hope we can both survive this toddler "no!! my way!!" phase, so that I can see what the joys of puberty will bring for both of us...