Sugar and spice and everything..Nice??

Every now and then, or every other day, whichever you want to believe, we have what I call “100% Tessa” days.  These are the days when my child is full-on HER.  It’s hard to explain if you haven’t witnessed it, but I imagine it’s like having quintuplets.   There seems to be children hanging on to every limb of my body and in my face no matter where I turn.  It goes something like this:

1)      She’s everywhere – in the kitchen, now in my bedroom, now in the sunroom changing the TV channel I’d been watching, then the dining room, her room, back in the kitchen – I get dizzy just watching her go from room to room at breakneck speed.

2)      She’s needy – days like this, she wants to be entertained.  And no quiet entertaining, either; she wants to PLAY.  Lord, I’m such a bad “player.”  Bike riding, board games (which I actually enjoy), Barbie dolls, beauty shop…and the Academy Award of all things I hate to play…PRETEND!  AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!  I am NOT a good pretend player.  Especially when my pretend partner is feeding me lines the whole time.

3)      She’s mouthy – I give you this example:

Me: Why are you being such a pooty-head today?

Her: Because my name is Tessa.

And that’s the only reason she needs.  I can’t tell you how many times she got into trouble yesterday.   And didn’t care.  She made messes, she talked back, and she was LOUD.  I was so tired when bedtime came along, I want to bury my head in the covers and stay for a week.

Today, we had just the opposite.  Today…she was Don.  Now, in my sweet ADULT husband, it’s cute – the Eeyore voice and the “everything sucks” attitude.  I know that his is only 50% real and it doesn’t last.  But in a 9-year-old who already thinks she’s the center of the universe?? These are the days I miss vodka.

Her throat hurt, she was hungry, she had a stomach ache, she had a pain in her side…make her laugh, fix her lunch, play outside…the orders requests never stopped.  This was 0% Tessa; the polar opposite of the day before.  And twice as tiring.

This weekend, we are heading to the mountains for a couple of nights.  I plan on letting her run wild.  Bike riding, hiking, swimming…whatever I can find for her to do that will run the vinegar out of her bloodstream.   

Somewhere, my mom and Don’s grandmother are laughing.  Thanks a lot, ladies.  Thanks. A. Lot.