Wednesday night Monkey1 refused to go to bed. There was a screaming fight, and I'm surprised Monkey2 didn't wake up. Monkey1 lost "staying up" privileges for the rest of the week. Usually I put both of them to bed, and once Monkey2 is snoring, Monkey1 creeps out and I read her another chapter of "Story of the World."
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Thursday morning Monkey1 refused to get dressed for school. She was dressed; she always dresses herself immediately in play clothes upon getting up for the day. After a few reminders, I put her school jumper, shirt, and shoes in a bag, and propelled her out the door. Once in the car and pulling out of the driveway, she realized she did not have her glasses.
"Where are they?" I asked.
"I threw them in the pink room." She knows that glasses throwing makes me mad; I don't want them to break.
"Well, when I get back home, I'll look for them."
Big tears, "But I NEED them!"
Maybe not so much if you were without them for the last half hour without noticing, I thought, but there was no way I was letting her back in the house for another show-down over who knew what.
I made her change in the car once we got to school. She complained about my choice of shirts (long sleeve vs. short sleeve) and my choice of shoes (brown Mary Janes vs. white sneakers), and both times I reminded her that if she gets dressed at home, she can make her own choices on these items.
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Friday morning Monkey2 decided she wanted to wear her mermaid bathing suit. I have no time to search for out-of-season, not to mention too-small, clothing on a school morning, and promises to look for it after Monkey1 was at school were not acceptable. So she walked out the door this morning in underwear, a jacket, and boots. All the way down the front sidewalk to the car, she was tugging at the hem of her jacket, trying to make it longer. She refused to go back for pants. I prayed that any passing cars would not make any phone calls about the bad parent on the block. It was 20 something degree weather.
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Hours later, mermaid bathing suit under fleece pants and shirt and jacket, Monkey2 set her heart on a "Hatchling Pterodactyl" and tantrumed about it staying at the store for 15 minutes in the car and then another 45 minutes at home. I kept waiting for her to fall asleep. The ferocity of her upsetness seemed to warrant a nap trying to overtake her, but it never came.
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Friday night Monkey1 went to bed, then snuck down in the basement where Dad was playing video games. I took her back upstairs, trying a trick from a friend. I told her that since she didn't want to stay in her bed, I would, and she had to stand. And so she stood, in the dark, in her room, while I lay down on her bed. After awhile she admitted she was tired and wanted to be in bed. I gave her a kiss and exited.
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