So I peed on a stick.......: oh today

We have officially welcomed the terrible two's in our house. Some people hate the term terrible two's but that shit is real and no joke. Olive isn't quite two but man oh man is she going through a little bit of something and some of it is a whole lotta nasty. I've accepted it and I know that I just have to have patience and take a lot of deep breaths. It isn't all bad of course but somehow those difficult moments really get to me and bring me down. Ok PMS is zero help. Today was trying to say the least. She had her second semi private swim lesson today and her other friend wasn't there and she was totally miserable. She cried the entire time so she never really got to swim. The instructor was really sweet and tried to calm her down by playing with some toys but she wanted nothing to do with him so after 20 minutes there we were out the door. I felt sad for her because she will usually spend hours at swim class but it was just an off day. Since I'm not in the pool with her anymore and her friend wasn't there I think it was just too much. Luckily we have a bunch of make up classes and we will go again this week and I will go in with her and hopefully she will forget all about today.
After swim we headed to target and since I knew her mood was kinda bla I got her a big ass popcorn and juice drink. I'm fine giving her junk food on occasion but this was even a bit much for me but it was genius. She never made a whine or anything the entire time. I don't plan on doing that every time but sometimes you just have to get shit done. I can't even tell you how many stores I've had to leave because she's lost her mind.
When we got home things were fine. She had a great lunch and we played outside for an hour or so. Things were great till it came to nap time. She downright refused to sleep. I tried everything. She gets really clingy when I try to put her down and then screams her head off. It's not he kind of scream that will eventually lead her to sleeping. I tried laying in our bed with her and laying on the couch and rocking her but she wanted nothing. After almost 2 hours I gave up. Writing about it sounds lame but if you've ever been at your wits end then you know what this is like. Trying to keep her busy when she was tired was just annoying. That nap is my time to refresh my mom battery. Even if I'm doing stuff around the house it's my time and I need it even if it's just an hour. She was also being nasty and hitting. Oh man the hitting is bad. I can't tell her no anymore, I sound like a broken record. I've tried all approaches. The nasty clap with a no and the calm no and both don't work. I mean eventually she stops but she looks right at me and does it like she knows it pisses me off. She will even do things that she knows are wrong and say no outloud. It's all about pushing my limits and being defiant these days. This phase will end and like all the other not so fun things I will forget. Luckily she has sweet moments and makes me laugh my ass off the rest of the day. It's just hard when you are in the moment and can't find a way to just calm down.

So I've posted about these before but this one was in my inbox today. It's cheesy and uber hippy but it's also true. I need to try and be more positive and somehow find a way to not get so worked up about her behavior. But seriously if she would sleep "normal" hours and take naps that would really help. Oh did I mention that she won't sleep at night every other night too?? Deep breaths.

:: HOW to "Love the Behavior" ::

(Continued from www.dailygroove.net/love-the-behavior )

When conventional wisdom says, "Love the child, hate
the behavior," and you'd rather respond with pure Love,
here's a simple fill-in-the-blank exercise for finding
a way to love your child's "misbehavior" as it arises...

     "I don't want this behavior,
      and I may choose not to tolerate this behavior,
      but I accept that it is what's happening,
      here and now,
      and I LOVE this behavior because
      ____________________ , and
      ____________________ , and..."

Come up with as many ways as you can to use this behavior
as an excuse to open your heart. Some examples:

I love this behavior because...

...it's a clear sign that my child needs help.

...it gives me an opportunity to practice staying
   connected to my inner power, unconditionally.

...it reminds me how grateful I am just that my child is alive!

Bottom line: You hold the key to your own heart. And you're
free to unlock it for any reason, or no reason at all.

So, on to Fathers Day which is all happiness! We had such a wonderful day. We started off with a yummy breakfast. Relaxing ummmm no but lovely still. After we ate we headed down to Blake's parents house. We had planned for a beach day but it was a bit overcast in the morning and windy so we decided on a bike ride instead. Olive loves her bike seat and her smile is ridiculous. She gets super excited when Blake goes offroading on the grass. She screams "bump bump bump" over and over. We took her over the Fun Zone with plans to get some ice cream but she was way more interested in the Ferris wheel. I thought she just wanted to watch but she actually wanted to go on it. Once we were on I was a little worried she would freak out but I was wayyyy off. She was screaming "up" and "down" and was so happy. By the end she was waving to everyone as we went around. She is quite adventurous! She really wanted to do that bungee thing where you are hooked up and jump on the bounce thing but I'm guessing she was too young. She is so my kid. The rest of the day was spent hanging at the house and then a family dinner. It was such a nice day and we did a little bit of everything.

Now for too many photos as usual.