Diary of a Mom of a Drama Queen

I am preparing a bunch of photo-intensive catch-up posts from our fun-filled last week or so, but first I feel like I need to just vent. I understand that three is the new two. Meaning that the twos are not so terrible anymore, but the threes just might drive a mother over the edge. So, what does that say about the fours? Because here we are...smack in the middle of the fours...and I'm wondering how much longer I'll be able to hold out before I have to get botox and color my hair.

I thought the fours would be so much better. We know how to use our words to express ourselves. We are getting older. It should be getting better. But try telling that to the nannies and the stay at home moms who were gathered in great numbers at the Barnes and Noble for story time yesterday morning.

We were there to pick out a chapter book for Evan. He had told me that a friend of his can "read a chapter book all by himself!" I suggested that I'm sure that Evan could too, but we just hadn't started buying them for him yet. So, we had some time to kill yesterday and I decided to go to the bookstore to let Evan pick out a book. I also found an "easy reader" book for Evan that I thought he would enjoy. I was browsing the level one easy reader princess books for Pressley when she appeared with a big, gaudy, sparkly Princess book that included a set of paints and maybe some stickers. I told her that we were here to buy books that would help us read - not books with paints and stickers - and she started to whine. "But, mom-MEEE, I want this book!" I calmly replied, "No, sweetie, that is not what we are here for today. Maybe we can come back for that book sometime when you have your own money or when you have earned a treat."

I won't give you the whole play-by-play, because frankly, I don't want to re-live it and it would exhaust you to just read about it. But, suffice it to say that after I had tried all my best mommy tricks, I finally had to drag her from the store, kicking and screaming while all the nannies and stay at home moms within a 10 mile radius sat watching - either sympathizing or judging. I'm hoping for the former.

I am still hoping that this recent wave of behavior (sadly, this has not been an isolated incident) is the result of missed naps and late bedtimes several days in a row last week. I have been determined that, starting with this past Monday, she would get sufficient naps everyday and we would not sacrifice bedtimes for any reason. We have had a good several days of good sleep habits, but so far, we don't seem to be back on track with the behavior.

I'll keep ya posted, but I really need a reappearance of my sweet little girl. Drama queen, I can handle. But, all-out DIVA may make me run away from home...