Thank God for GREAT Neighbors!

Today started off as one of those days that you just want to forget about and move on to a new day and start fresh. Claire decided that she didn't want to listen to me at all today therefore putting me in a bad mood and causing my fuse to be very short, especially with her. Within in 20 minutes of her waking up she and I were all ready going around about her drinking her Orange Juice out of a big girl cup followed by her spilling some of the OJ on my coffee table in the family room. I don't know what it is about this child of mine but she is VERY attached to her sippy cups and only wants to drink out of them. I have told her that they have been put away in a box in the basement and will not come back out again until Paige is to the point where she needs them. Paige could use them now seeing as how she is off the bottle and drinking out of a sippy cup but for now we just have Paige drinking from the smaller ones that are for toddlers just learning how to hold the cup and drink. Anyways..........SO after making Claire sit at the kitchen table until the Orange Juice was gone (which probably took her just about 15 minutes for half a glass full) we got dressed and made our way out the door to run some errands. The morning was starting to look better until we were in the car on the way home from the store. For Claire's 3rd birthday her Aunt Lauren gave her some lipgloss that Claire absolutely LOVES and wants to use all the time (thanks Aunt Lauren), however, when she uses it she doesn't just get it on her lips it gets all over her face. I saw that Claire had it in her hand and told her that she needed to wait until we got home to put it on. I even said to her did you hear me we need to wait until we get home to put that on so you can look in the mirror, she knodded yes. WELL we were just about home and I turned around and looked and sure enough she had snuck it on without me seeing her do it and I probably won't have noticed it EXCEPT she had what looked like The Joker's smile on her face from the lipgloss. I totally lost it and said did you put that on after I told you to wait until we got home? She told the truth and said that she had, so I reached back grabbed the lipgloss and pretended (but she thought and still thinks that I really did)to throw it out the window. Oh my goodness you would have thought that I killed her dog with how she cried and cried. I mean we got home and as I was getting everything into the house she was still crying more like sobbing in the corner of our dining room. As I put Paige down for her nap she still continued to sob in the corner.
To make a long story short, we had a talk about listening and not just doing what Claire wants to do, BTW, all this happened by 10am. I really need to nip this in the bud now, she is so strong willed and so determined that I know it is only going to get worse down the road especially once those teenage years hit.

Well to the point of my title Thank God for Great Neighbors! Carol, Kelli and I packed up the kids and headed to the park for a picnic lunch and to play. I really needed to get out of the house and get around other moms who know how trying times like these can be. Carol has Chase who is 9 and Brooke who will be 5 this fall. Kelli has Sloan who will be 5 this summer, Tia who is just about 2.5 and sweet Landon who is 6 months. These ladies are great and just being around them gave me a different mind set and let me just laugh and have fun. They didn't even know that I was having a difficult morning (well now they do) but the afternoon is looking much better, plus LOST is on tonight WAHOOO! Thanks Carol and Kelli for helping me get through this day.

Here are a few pictures of the kids at the park:


Claire

Claire & Brooke having lunch!

Claire & Paige holding still just long enough for a quick snap from me!

Tia, Brooke and Claire

Sloan & Claire