drama.

I think this baby is a girl.

I really don't care one way or the other.

Just healthy. (and happy would be good, too! and sleepy.)

I told Corey the other night that I am so ready to be past this first stage. Just feeling exhausted and sick and sore and tired and worn out... Then I looked at him and said, "It's probably a girl." Someone at school asked if I felt this way when I was pregnant with Sophie. I said no, not really. But I feel that way around her now. :)

I love the little girl to pieces. I really do.

But she can be exhausting.

So much drama. So much attitude. So much sass.

And she saves it all for me.

Lucky me.

Things have gotten better.

Mornings were the worst. I called Corey one morning and told him that it was a good thing my blood pressure wasn't a concern. Oh, we've had some battles in the morning.

But things have gotten better.

We're trying some new things...

*fuzzy ball jar

Jessi started these at daycare last year. The kids each have a jar and they can get 3 fuzzy balls in it each day. The first one is if you are good for mommy in the morning. Totally changed our mornings last year. This still works for Lawson, but it obviously wasn't an incentive for Sophie anymore, since she doesn't go to Jessi's. So she now has one at school. She looked through my prize box at school and found some things that she liked (after she argued with me about whether or not I actually had a prize box.) She can get one in the morning, if she is sweet, one after school, and she can get extra ones if she actually talks to other adults and teachers that talk to her! (still working on the shyness.)

* wearing clothes to bed
Sophie only gets to wear pajamas Friday and Saturday nights now. She loves pajamas, so I thought this might be kind of a punishment, too, but she seems to like it. We almost always picked out her clothes the night before, but now we actually put them on and she sleeps in them. Tights, dresses, jeans, everything. It's made our mornings much less crazy, because there was always something in the morning that didn't feel right or didn't fit right or sleeves that were too short, etc.

* leggings

I had almost decided to never let Sophie wear a dress to school again. But we would still have the same problem Sunday mornings. Tights. The toes were always feeling funny. Which led to all sorts of crying and drama. So I bought her footless tights/leggings. She loves them, and the toes never feel funny. We did have a little drama about shoes, because I made a rule that you cannot wear socks with dress shoes. But we got over that and they really do look cute.

* early bedtime

We don't do this consistently (especially since I have pretty much been on the couch every night the last several weeks and SuperDad is doing bedtime solo.) But for awhile, she was going to bed 30-45 minutes before Lawson. And crashing. Yes, she's 2 1/2 years older than him, but, he stills takes a nap each afternoon. We would tell her, "When you can be sweet like Lawson in the morning, then you can go to bed when he does."

I'm feeling very encouraged after a talk with a good friend the other night. Her teenage daughter (who is our favorite babysitter) is delightful. She was bragging on her, saying how great she has been lately, how helpful, such a good attitude, etc. After her mom had surgery, she was the best. But... her mom told me that when this girl was Sophie's age, it was a whole different story. Attitude, drama, crying, yelling... it sounded so familiar. And really gave me hope that maybe we will get all of this out of our system now. Maybe I really will survive the teen years. Because I have said more than once, "If six is this hard... I can't imagine what 13 is going to be like!"

Sassy as she may be... I do love this little girl.

And only 20-some more days... and all our morning drama will be over.

At least for the summer.