Some Days are Diamonds...

Growing up when I'd have a bad day my Mom would always tell me, "Some days are diamonds, and some are just lumps of coal." It has always made sense, but motherhood has made this oldie but goodie really resonate. But in the course of a day with a three-year-old girl and a sixteen-month-old boy there could be ten lumps of coal to one, sole, but brilliant diamond. Lucy is amazing, every day she does or says something to bring her one step closer to independence and one step further away from the baby she used to be. She is also in constant conflict with this new, independent self that is torn between making her own decisions and clinging to being entertained and catered to. She has discovered her own sense of fashion that is as eclectic as her, she has taken to her new preschool like it is no big deal and our dear little Lucy has also discovered the art of talking back. The latter of which accounts for the coal.

Lucy's first day of school went off without a hitch. She woke up buzzing with excitement about the day and eagerly found her cube and hung up her Dora backpack. She found the dress up clothes right away and within seconds had on butterfly wings as she explored the playhouse. Michael, Josh and I hung out for a few minutes, clearly not needed by Lucy but enjoying watching our little girl have such a positive reaction to her new school. Three days a week we pack up and head out to school and three days a week Josh wreaks havoc on the Co-op for the five seconds we are in there dropping off Lucy. He climbs into her classmates cubbies, waves big goopy paint brushes loaded with paint around making a mess and tips over the tiniest little things that are out for the big kids to work on fine motor skills. He is in full Budzilla mode and as I run after him cleaning up and rushing out, Lucy barely acknowledges us as she has already settled into an activity.

Lucy's indepencence has gotten more pronounced since she started school. She insists she can go to the potty without help, peeking out the door and yelling that she doesn't need any help as she sits on her perch. She "flips and dips" to get her coat on and is hell-on-wheels on her Princess scooter. Lucy's new sense of independence has also manifested itself in her sense of fashion. She has decided that she loves to wear dresses, particularly fluffy party dresses with her silver sparkly shoes. There is one particular summer, uber-fluffy dress that she loves that she now wears with a shirt under it for the colder weather. She wore it last week and her teacher told me how careful she was not to get any paint on it, apparently she didn't see Lucy sliding down the dirty ramp on the playground face first.

"It's fair," is Lucy's favorite new backtalk phrase. It is funny because she has it so wrong, and she will be absolutely pissed out of her gourd about something and with angry tears in her red little face she yell, "It's fair," with all her might. She also gets this hysterical, spazzy, out-of-control laughter that only means big trouble. She'll be crazy doing something she's not supposed to and then you'll tell her to stop and she gets the hyper, I'm not listening - I'm only getting more out of control laugh. It is so irritating. There are days when I feel like she is in time-out every ten seconds. I also feel like I am threating to take away privliges left and right. Last week I actually told her that if she didn't stop doing something I was going to not only take her Barbie Pegasus DVD and throw it out the window, but throw it out the window AND run it over. Not my proudest parenting moment, but she was being just plain obnoxious. Definitely a coal moment.

Over the weekend we went to a fall fair. They had all kinds of little rides and Lucy was so excited. She held onto her little ream of tickets and patiently waited for the rides. It was a brisk and cold fall day and she had her big puffy down jacket and her too tight hat and mittens from last winter. On one ride she found how to honk the horn and did so for almost the entire ride. She was just so pleased with herself and had not idea how loud and annoying the horn was to everyone else but Michael and I. She insisted on going into the big inflatable, bouncy fairytale shoe and proceeded to get stuck at the top of the slide. Thankfully the nice little teenager working the tickets climbed up to rescue her and send her down the slide, saving Michael or I the embarassment of deflating the shoe in a rescue mission. Even after getting stuck Lucy bounded out telling us how much she liked the slide part of the ride. Josh was just really mad he couldn't go on any rides, so Michael took him to watch the music while Lucy had her fun on the rides. She rode the train and I sat and watched my little girl go round and round on the tiny, little track. Everytime she'd be on the straightaway heading towards me she'd wave and tilt her head back so she could see from under her hat the was almost entirely covering her eyes. The sun was shining, the leaves were on fire and my little girl looked so excited and proud as she sought out my face. She looked like she thought she was the coolest girl on the world, riding her train, waving to her Mom. That was a diamond.