Enough drama for this mama

Yawn. Regardless the number of daily activities in which I engage there is one constant...the sleepy, worn out feeling I have by the end of the day. Not just tired, dog tired. No, better yet, winter bear tired. Too tired to look at my messy kitchen let alone know how to start cleaning it. Usually, I can keep my cool throughout the day even in the middle of chaos, but when the sun starts thinking of setting, my frayed patience is too thin to calmly handle one more demand, cry, or disobedient refusal. Who knew that embedded deep within this 5 ft 2 inched frame is an US ARMY drill sergeant with an arsenal of commands and threats to persuade a young Cadette to clean her pink and purple barracks. Sigh.

There were some fun moments today. Zayden has learned to sit up from his crawl. It throws me for a loop every time I walk into his room after a nap and find him sitting up in his crib. He also ate some KIX for the first time today loving the crunchiness of the lightly sweetened puffs. As I was taking pictures of him, Xylie asked me to take some pictures of her drinking a bottle of water. I obliged. Xylie also cracked me up this morning when she pouted, pointed to her messy bed head and said "Mommy, look at this crazy silly hair I have. I can't see my friends looking like this!"




Xylie's friend Cynthany came over for a few hours this afternoon and the girls had a good time playing together.

On a side note, have you ever heard people use the phrase "save the drama for your mama"? I'd like to petition changing it to "Save your mama from the drama!" My Xylie is the quintessential drama queen. Here's an example from the today: She got into my jewelry box and pulled out one of my favorite necklaces. I asked her to put it back. She argued with me, but then agreed. As she returned the necklace, I took Zayden into their room for a diaper change. A few minutes later, Xylie entered the room sobbing. Not a whimper, but a gut wrenching from the bottom of the soul cry. She fell into my open arms like a limp rag doll. I asked her what had happened, certain that the fuss could not be over the necklace. She tilted her tear-stained face upward, looked me straight in the eye and bellowed "you broke my heart!" It was about the necklace. Part of me wanted to snort "oh give me a break girl you don't know the meaning of a broken heart." But the other part of me felt saddened that she had used those terms and was so upset. In fact, I am not even sure where she heard that phrase. I just held her tight and firmly, yet gently explained that she was not permitted to take my jewelery out of my jewelry box and reiterated that I loved her.

This evening, however, my response was not as tender. While scolding her for ignoring me when I asked her to clean up her toys she started to cry and said "You broke my heart!" I saw this a an act of pure manipulation and said "Cut that out. Asking you to clean your room may make you angry but it doesn't break your heart." Her reply "Fine, then, you make me angry." We have this deal with Xylie (and will with Zayden). She can tell me anything she's feeling...even if those feelings are feelings of anger or frustration over something I said or did. However, she must do so in a respectful manner. Sometimes that respect line gets a bit blurred for my new parent vision... but I want her to be able to talk to me when she's older about the serious stuff and that will only happen if I open a circle of trust now. So, I decided her comment fell into the respect category and didn't respond. She finished cleaning her room, took a nice long bath and went to bed with a happy heart. Sigh...Yawn...as Scarlett O' Hara would say "tomorrow is another day."