Molding Clay to the Rescue

So I promised myself I wouldn't use this blog to write about the tough days and the big battles with my 4-year-old.....and I am going to stick to it...but I gotta tell ya, these have been some tough couple of weeks. Besides the normal things that fall under the category of "that sucks" like the speeding ticket I got, or the carton of eggs I dropped on the floor, the job interview I had but the guy called in sick and forgot to tell me so I show up after arranging a babysitter, the fish food that got completely spilled all over Sophie's bed and the pee on the floor from Noah as I was cleaning up the fish food, or my treadmill which no longer inclines, besides those things, Sophie has been tough, and that makes the other things seem like a walk in the park. There was a time when I would proclaim that Friday was my favorite day, but for the past few weeks Sophie is just so worn out by the time Friday rolls around she can hardly function. She is "phasing out" her nap. I guess it is called that because inevitably they go through a 'phase' when they do this. I guess I never thought about what that meant, but what it means is they are not tired enough for a nap and don't want one, but need some sleep or they are too tired the next day...so the 'phase' is the period of time it takes for them to adjust to less sleep and that means tough days. So yesterday was one of those days. Without going into details, let me just say I had to call in my reinforcements for advice and took a time-out for myself to shed a few tears. But in the end the storm blew over and it was molding clay that saved us. I got it out for little Noah who deserves to have some fun despite his sister's tantrums. And wouldn't you know it, Sophie stopped crying, finally ate some breakfast (it was now around 10am by the way) and then sat down and happily molded some clay. I think that it is very hard for me to describe the challenges we face as we parent our little Sophie, and I know that every parent goes through these challenges, but somehow I always feel like my stories seem to top all the other stories when we sit around talking about 'you wouldn't believe what ____ did yesterday'...Usually I don't even get into it, because some stories are just too outrageous. Sophie is a determined little girl, and this shows through in her battles, but also in very positive ways too. Sophie is an amazing artist, now I am for sure biased, but she constantly amazes us and her teachers. She knows exactly what she wants when she sits down at the table to work "mom I need 2 pieces of red paper, my red scissors, a hole punch, tape and some string" 30 minutes later she has created another work of art. We have piles and piles of artwork. She loves it, does it constantly and never wants to stop doing it. Last week at a playdate I had to beg her to stop so that she would play with her poor friend who wanted Sophie to go find her while she hid! So her battles are a bit like that. She knows exactly what she wants and she locks in and fights hard for it. I have no doubt she will be very successful one day - something to do with the arts, perhaps a director or something? Anyway, here are a couple of the things she has done this week. And she took the picture of the molding clay and was very particular about how it all looked inside the frame of the camera! So yes, it was molding clay to the rescue in the end.


It was crazy how much the day changed after that. The hardest part for me was believing the storm had actually passed, was this just a break between thunderstorms or was it safe to get excited about the sun? But it was. We had a great afternoon. Sophie did lots of art, we played 'Puff the Magic Dragon' over and over while we danced, we jumped on the beds, played hide and go seek and watched 'Charlotte's Web' with a bowl of popcorn and chocolate milk (like my dad used to make for us). So, just like the carton of eggs that dropped on the floor, it sucked and it was a mess, but nothing that couldn't be cleaned up and learned from...it is hard to not break eggs when some days you are walking on eggshells.