Mean Mama rises again

It has been a few days of good. Mostly. I could feel her edginess rising. I had talked her off the ledge a few times. It is like she is looking for a way to get into trouble.

So this morning she runs into my room (still sleeping) and announces she is hungry. She wants me to get up and make cereal. Easy enough but I feel like a truck has run over me since I stayed up way to late reading my book. I just want to sleep. I pull her close to me and cuddle. After about 30 seconds she has had enough. She wiggles. She whines. She cries. But I don't let go. One of the things we have been working on is using her words. I remind her to ask nicely and I will let her go. She leverages her body against my and pushes and whines more. I remind her again. I hold on tight. Eventually she relents. She asks nicely if I will "please" let her go. I release her immediately. After all, I must reward the good behavior.

I crawl out of bed, fix a bowl of cereal, turn on sprout, and find my way back to bed. And fall back to sleep.

I am awoken again by her crawling into bed and announcing she is hungry. Really? But it has only been 5 minutes. Hasn't it. Nope. Closer to about 3 hours. I tell her to get a granola bar and I will get up and fix lunch soon.

She runs downstairs and gets the granola bar. But she can't open the wrapper so comes back upstairs. She hands it to me and I begin to unwrap it. And she proudly announces, "I didn't even have to say please." So I stop. She's right. She didn't say it. She's wrong. She has to say please. She refuses. She tries to grab the granola bar from my hands. I ask her to say please. She crosses her arms across her chest, gives her best dirty look, and says NO! I send her to her room. And on the way out of my room she punches the wall. Really??

I tell her she can come out when she is ready to say please and head downstairs.

I notice a picnic set up in the living room and smile at her creativity. She has dragged down her bedspread, her barbies, and a few other things. But I have to step on it to get to the kitchen. And it is wet. Soaked. That is when I notice the 2 cups. Yesterday she spilled water all over living room floor and I told her no more water in cups without tops. I scoop up the bedspread and take it to the dryer. I ask her to come down and clean up the living room.

I pass by the garbage and notice straight black hair on the floor. Nobody here has straight black hair. I ask her what it is and she shrugs. I open the pantry and find lots of straight black and brown hair in the garbage. Who could that be. Oh! The barbies! I ask. She denies it. I ask her to get the barbies that she cut the hair. She does. I make her throw them away. Mean Mama strikes again.

I get out the steam cleaner and vacuum up the water still on the rug. I ask her to take all her things upstairs. I get out the vacuum and start cleaning the carpet -- okay, I admit that it needed to be done anyway but I am finding hair everywhere.

I sit her at the table with the granola bar and have a talk. I know I was mean but I don't want her to just destroy her toys. It is not okay. So I remind her of Toy Story. I ask her if she liked Sid. She says no -- which I knew. And I tell her what she did was what Sid does to the toys. She doesn't want to be Sid.

I know I was harsh but I want her to learn to take care of her things.

Mean Mama