"I gonna not pitch a fit"

By far the best comment to come out of Handley's mouth today was on our way to the pool.  She stated, "Mommy, I gonna not pitch a fit today."

Monday and Tuesday she really threw fits.  I can count on about 2 fingers the times she's really behaved this way before this week.  The first one this week was because at the pool I said she needed to share a toy or we would be going home.  After giving her multiple chances she continued to ignore my requests, so we went home.  It wasn't pretty, but I didn't really care and wasn't embarrassed because I knew most of the people at the pool, all of them had pre-schoolers, and I knew they would understand.  The second fit was in the middle of CVS.  It really was over nothing, but again, I had asked her to do something, she wouldn't do it and because she was so upset with me she was screaming at the top of her lungs.  I was SO embarrassed.  We were there to get batteries for a new game she received as a birthday gift so it was the perfect teachable moment.  I could have completely given in to her and saved me from the embarrassment, but I feel like that would just teach her that pitching a fit that way gets her want she wants.  Something I definitely don't want to teach her.  After multiple attempts to reason with her and get her to "make the right choice" I ended up carried her out of the store kicking and screaming.  I still don't know how I got her out of the store and into her car seat all while holding Harper.  She finally calmed down and kept begging me to go back to get the batteries for her game.  We did eventually go back, but it was several hours later after she had calmed down, apologized, and proven that she was going to be "a sweet girl."  I once read that during situations like these somebody has got to win, and it better be the mama.  Let's just say that after both of these instances she got a good talkin' to and I guess it really hit home.  Hence her comment to me this afternoon.  "I gonna not pitch a fit." I'm tempted to make that our new motto! Ha!

Thankfully today we had a wonderful day and she was super sweet all day long.  That's the girl I am used to! 

On another note, Harper has reached the get-into-everything-and-make-a-complete-mess phase.  She quickly sneaks away and starts pulling out whatever she can find.  Two that I snapped pics of tonight during the few minutes I was trying to get her into her room for bed was a spool of ribbon and Handley's shoes (which she LOVES to get into and drag out of the closet).