A different kind of Lila story...

I am so angry with my child right now. To start with, she woke up at 4:30 this morning. Which means that we all woke up at 4:30 this morning. Doug got up with her that time and again at 5:00. I, thankfully, got to snooze during that time. When she came ratttling at our door again at 5:30, I got up with her. I took her back to her room where she proceeded to throw a kicking, flailing, screaming fit.

She has done that before, when she's angry because she can't get back to sleep, but not in a long time. I was not prepared and reacted by getting very angry myself. Twice I put her down and walked out of the room to calm down and to let her scream herself out (theoretically). The second time, I was standing outside her door - had to guard it because she kept trying to escape - and Charlie decided that was a good time to start yelling at me too.

With great self control, I walked past him and got the squirt bottle. I gave him a good squirt and then took up my position by the door again. This was where things stood when Doug came to tell me that he couldn't go back to sleep, so I could if I wanted to. I'm sure I must have look funny, guarding Lila's room with a squirt bottle. Or, it would have been funny in other circumstances.

I gratefully gave up my post and went back to bed. However, it took me 45 minutes to get back to sleep. For starters, I was really worked up. Also, Doug gave her a snack and put her back in her bed, then came to take his shower. Five minutes later, Lila showed up again and spent the next 10 minutes opening and closing the bathroom door. The noise and light show did not help my efforts to go back to sleep.

I finally dozed off between 6:45 and 7:00... Then my alarm went off at 7:15. [sigh] The alarm was set because (a) we were supposed to go to BSF this morning, and (b) Doug had to leave the house at promptly 7:45 because he's spending the day in Houston (for work). I hit snooze a couple of times and then finally oozed out of bed. Doug left and things were fairly uneventful for a while.

At 8:15, I figured I'd better call my BSF discussion leader and let her know that we were not coming because there was no way that Lila was going to make it to 11:15 (when bsf ends) with no nap. As I'm dialing the phone, I walk in to find her on the floor with her eyes closed. Looks like I made the right decision! I got her in bed and we both took a brief nap - only 45 minutes.

She was really in a pretty good mood after that and we mostly just played together until 11:00. At this point, I made what I thought was a good decision. It turned out to be a very bad one. Since we hadn't left the house yet and it was lunch time, I thought we could go and have lunch together at Schlotszky's. I figured we'd eat and come home and try another nap.

This is where my daughter turned into an absolute nightmare. When we were ordering, I asked her if she wanted pizza or a sandwich. She said sandwich. Do you want ham on it? No. OK - kids' cheese sandwich. We get our drinks and our food and sit down at the table and she becomes possessed. I don't know exactly what happened first, but something led her to go on a hunger strike.

She was not going to eat her sandwich. Not even one bite. No way. She knows that our family rule is this: You must take one bite of the food you are given - that means keep the food in your mouth, chew it up, and swallow it - and if you don't like it then you don't have to eat any more. She usually complies with this rule, though it has often required at least one timeout lately. Not today.

This time she would not keep the food in her mouth. I forced her to take a bite and she spit it out screamed. I put it back in and she spit it out and screamed. Over and over. I was starting to get very angry again, so I went and got a high chair and put her in it. (i had warned her of this consequence if she did not obey.) She continued screaming and started trying to knock everything she could reach off the table.

I moved everything out of her reach, told her I was not talking to her again until she stopped screaming, and went on with my lunch. She leaned forward and started deliberately snotting on the table. I wiped her nose with a napkin. She was out of snot, so she started trying to spit on the table. I moved her back so that she couldn't reach. She then began spitting/drooling on herself. Have fun!

That wasn't getting my attention, so she went back to screaming. I did my best to ignore her and enjoy my food. At some point, she stopped screaming long enough to cry that she wanted out of the high chair. I told her, very calmly, that she had to eat a bite of her sandwich if she wanted out of the chair. She said, "No!" and went back to screaming. We had that conversation a few times.

I was being THAT parent (the one who lets their child scream in public and doesn't do anything about it), but I was not going to let her run me out of the restaurant just because she was tired and didn't want to be there. I finally finished eating, cleaned up, loaded up and picked Lila up. At some point while I was packing up, she had the audacity to tell me she wanted the cookie that came with her meal. As if!

We came home, with a lot of whining and crying along the way. When we got home, I basically had to carry her into the house because she just wanted to throw herself on the ground and cry. Oh yes, and also snot/spit on the carpet. I really hope that little phase passes soon! I put her down for a nap with minimal drama and she has, thankfully, been asleep for almost half an hour.

If this story makes you feel sorry for Lila, then please don't tell me about it because right now I do not feel sorry for her. Mostly, I needed a place to vent. Did she HAVE to do this on a day when Doug won't be home 'til after she's in bed?!? Ugh. I think I'm going to go spend some time with God. You can pray with me that He'll bless me with an extra dose of patience and love today. :)