Monday, April 07, 2008

Two tired girls

The girls spent Friday night and all day Saturday with their grandmother and returned home for a late bedtime. True to form, they were up at the crack of dawn Sunday.

Lily fell apart first, bursting into tears at the slightest thing - Campbell touched her teddy bear, the tent they built fell down, Ella wouldn't play with her, her apple had a bruise. After two hours of dealing with her tears, I sent her to her room for rest time. "But I'm not tired!" she wailed as I tucked her in. She popped out a few times to announce that she had stopped crying, but, mean mom that I am, I put her back in bed. After an hour of protesting, Lily finally fell asleep; she took a 3 1/2 hour nap. So much for her not being tired.

Ella held everything together until just before bedtime. As we were gearing up for toothbrushing and stories, Ella announced that she was hungry. B told her that it was too late for snack, which sent Ella over the edge. She started screaming about how she was starving, so she got sent to bed. B and I both went in to calm her down, to no avail. She finally cried herself to sleep, which just broke my heart. When she woke up this morning, her eyes were all puffy from crying. I wanted to cry from looking at her.

She just needs to learn that screaming and yelling and slamming doors is not the way to go about getting what she wants. B and I tried to explain it to her last night, but she was too worked up to listen to us. As a result of her fit, she has to go straight to her room after school today. I hate to do that to her, because I know her tantrum was a result of her being overtired, but still . . .

Poor tired girls.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain -- discipline is so hard in the moment that it needs to happen. You're a GREAT mommy, though, for following through!!!

Seamus O'Pine said...

Blame Debbie.

Anonymous said...

I tagged you for a meme today, if you want to play!

Anonymous said...

Poor things. All of you.

I actually hate it when my kids go to their grandparents' house, but I don't want to get in the way of their relationship, either. What can ya do?