Giving myself a time out

I've been a great mom today.

Started off the morning at swimming. Hung out a bit at home. Had a yummy lunch.

All the monkeys got changed to go to the sprinklers at the park. It started off well. My patience was much greater than it usually is. But I get really grumpy when I'm tired. The sun makes me tired.

I brought drinks. We drank them. I probably should have had more.

So, tired and slightly dehydrated, I lost all the patience that I had in abundance this morning.

My kids are now well watered. Fully snacked. Sitting in front of the boob-tube while I try and get some work done - hidden in my office-cave. I think the work is just an excuse. I need some time to myself. Being good all morning really did me in!

See pictures of the afternoon after the jump - 

They figured out the truth!!! Run for cover!

I had a life-altering experience today. Ok, not life-altering, but definitely something that makes me question my sanity at ever having decided to have children.
Something you dread as a parent, but you know that it's inevitable. You just hope they won't figure it out until MUCH later. Or ever.

My beautiful daughter, at 8 years old, has figured out that we, her parents, have no actual control over her.

(Please give me a minute here. I hear shrieking in my head. Wait. That's me!)

We took the kids to the dentist. The Boy (6 yrs. old) and The Monkey (3 yrs. old) were wonderful. Didn't want to participate, but they did it anyway.

Then The Girl got into the dentist chair. She wouldn't let him check her teeth. Finally, we tickled her mouth open a bit and lo-and-behold - a cavity! Then, she wouldn't let him polish her teeth. I had to take her to a different room and have a talk with her. "He will be gentle, but you have to let the dentist clean your teeth so they don't all rot and give you stinky breath and fall out until you look like an old hag out of some Brothers Grimm story." Phew. It worked. She got back in the chair and whined through the cleaning.

By the way, did I mention that the dentist is our uncle. Just sayin. Must have felt good to be him today.

Where did the world come crashing down for me? When he tried to put fluoride on her teeth. Just to be clear, this is the easiest part of the checkup. He uses his finger and just rubs the fluoride onto the teeth, leaves it there for 1 minute, then rinses it off. She wouldn't do it. She screamed, cried, escaped!!! She got off the chair and left the room and would not come back!

Did I mention that the dentist is our uncle. Just checking.

What do we do now? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Please leave your comments to help us deal with this.

We go back to the dentist on Tuesday for the filling. What are the chances...

A day with my Beautiful Girl

Today has been an exceptional day, so far (I haven't hit pick-up time with Little Z, which is usually where the day goes downhill). I kept N home from camp today because she had an appointment to be a fit model at this very beautiful children's clothing company. She's done it before and she loves just trying on all the gorgeous, phenomenally high-quality outfits. After the appointment, we went to do some stuff together -- we picked up an activity book at the dollar store, we stopped in at Old Navy to get some camp/school stuff (huge sale happening!), and we went out for "coffee". Without being pulled in a million directions, I was so happy to know that I DO have some patience left in me. I wasn't constantly yelling at her, as I usually am. And I can really see that she is a beautiful person, inside and out. She is as considerate as an 8 year old can be. She is not tremendously independant or interested in a lot of pop-culture (I had suggested going to a magazine store and getting her a magazine, she was the one who wanted to get a puzzle book from the dollar store!), but she is easygoing and willing to come along without complaining. She is truly happy just spending time with me, and the only thing that she vetoed was going to a movie (she has a thing against movie theaters and I don't know why).

Today was a great day, both because of the company, and because I learned that I can be the parent that I originally thought I would be. It seems to work best one kid at a time, but we must remember - baby steps. I think I need to do this Mommy-day thing with the boys too...