the mouth

Arden went for her 3 year appt at the doc today. He said everything looked awesome. She is in the 98% for tallness and weight. He was happy that she is starting pre-k because he said her verbal skills were really excellent. She was telling him that I was mad at my pants last week--which was true. The belly was pushing them down. Anyway, he proceeded to give me some encouraging words that Arden would be testing the limits at this age. He said 3 is a very difficult age for girls and they are just going to see what all they can get away with. He said it is not uncommon for them to test their mothers especially. He said sometimes it may feel like I am making no progress with her but just to be consistant with making sure that I deal with defiant behavior-where she likes to act like the boss.
I am kinda glad that he brought it up because we have been having tons of that lately. It does make me mad when i am really tired and we have had a long day-basically when i am out of patience. However on a reg. basis I don't really mind it. It is actually pretty funny sometimes. He actually suggested that it will be a quality that will be good for her later in life because she will be independent and have leadership abilities. Yeah, but she might kill her momma in the meantime of teenage years. ha. No really, we have had some funny times lately. you can never ever tell what she will say. Sometimes I will tell her to eat her food and she will look at me and tell me to eat. I could smack her little mouth 3-4 times in a row and she will repeat whatever it is. I have had to count to 3. I have given warnings. I have made her put toys back for talking "ugly" to which she might reply "you were being ugly first". I am telling you--the 3's are a different world away from the compliant 2 year old that never told me "no". I have really been so blessed for most of her life so far. She can go anywhere and do anything and stay up late and go to dinner with us and we never have a problem. She is just realizing that she has an opinion that can be voiced at times. She is still very good but I thought I would share this horrific experience that we had the other night.
I was tired but needed to make a walmart run. Didn't want Matt to let her sit and watch tv so I took her with me. Soon as we got there we got 2 waters out of vending machine and before we even got a buggy we made our first trip to potty. Let me say she has been horrible lately of trying to open door when I am sitting my newly huge bottom on the toilet and today was no exception. There was no door hanger so here I am with my purse around my neck and holding 2 water bottles. She is touching pad trash can and jumping (doing her exercise) while holding on to the handicap safety grips. She proceeds to take her bottle and is licking the outside. I tell her to stop because it's nasty and then she drops it on ground so it goes rolling. Outside of the bathroom, I ask if she wants to sit in front or back of buggy-she cries and says she wants to walk. Walking in the walmart equals me nagging to hurry up and her touching everything and asking if we can get it so I say no. She proceeds to cry while I hoist her 45lb into the front seat of buggy. As we are walking to back of store she still has tears and everyone was looking. I tell her if she doesn't "can it" I am taking her back to the bathroom to "give her something to cry about". She stops immediately and goes into her latest favorite movie voice-CORALINE. She says in a very loud and dramatic voice "I want to be with my REAL mom and dad! I want you to LET ME GO". If child services really worked in the good ol' State of Tn. I am sure they were getting called from other women pushing their buggies. I just have to laugh. She is too funny sometimes. I just get to the breaking point and then sometimes like that happens. She also had to go to potty really bad just as I was getting in line with a whole buggy of groceries. I asked her to hold it till we got home. She did till we got to car and got all groceries in. Then she was holding herself and said her pee pee was hurting her. We had to go back in to the bathroom AGAIN. I called mom on the way home and asked her how she kept from beating her children. She just laughed.
Just thought I would share a day in the life lately. Here is a picture of someone who thinks she does no wrong.