Mama + Lily Ruth = Overload

Yesterday was... bleh. Lily Ruth woke up MAD again. She remained sullen until we got to Parent's Day Out. She brightened briefly when presented with the opportunity to sit and have agua and Goldfish with her friend Sydney.

According to her caregivers, she was bright and sunny all day, but refused to eat. When I picked her up, she was in the process of refusing a snack. She DID, however, see Miss Helen try to sneak her treat bag into the diaper bag. This caused a demanding of 'TREAT!' I was unaware at the time that she had not yet eaten any actual food, so I handed her a piece of candy, and gathered her things. When I suggested that we leave and 'go see Mama's friends' (I needed to run over to my place of employment), she lost her cool. She managed to smear chocolate on one of the few nice shirts that I own (despite having just cleaned her hands), snagged said shirt, and knocked the very heavy diaper bag from my shoulder to my elbow - causing a brightly burning pain in my right arm. *sigh*

We finally made it home, and got out our new paints! As I had supposed, being able to liberally apply color holds much more appeal than scrubbing faint pigments out of cheap watercolor wells.

You can slap 'em on the paper OR apply them directly to your torso...

You can stick the brush into your mouth then freak out because it tastes like PAINT...

or you can paint quietly after smudging Mama's camera lens... the options are endless really.

Sadly, painting ended in a meltdown screaming fit of 'TREEEEAT!!!' over and over and over. I let her know that she had to eat some real food before treats would be available. I even listed all of the yummy options. No dice. She screamed about treats off and on for almost an hour. I ignored her... because that's what I'm supposed to do when she acts like that... I hate it.

At any rate, we made it through dinner, and Miss Cranky Pants went to bed at 8 - with no protest.

Over the course of the day, I spent some time thinking about why my baby girl and I have been butting heads so dramatically this week. I think that it's my fault. I think that she's waaaaaaaay overtired. I've been so all-fired determined to keep her busy, that I may have run her into the ground. I drag her out of the house every morning, and we run errands almost every afternoon. She has recently started begging me to stay home. It's time for me to listen.

We're going to stay home today and tomorrow unless she requests to leave. So far, we managed to sleep in 2 extra hours (a record! We both desperately needed it!!), and are still in our pajamas. We've had breakfast, danced to Abba, watched Dinosaur Train, done some crayon art, and experimented with different methods for drinking juice...

Through a towel is not terribly efficient, but it sure is fun!

Next, we're going to eat lunch, read books then TAKE A NAP. Both of us.