A little bit of Grace

I know she had a birthday post…. but she had her well child check today.  So here is a pic study on Grace, her well child stats, and a story…ah, my little Gracie Bear.

I just love this little girl.  Even when she is driving me crazy, she steals my heart.  Here are her stats from her well child check: 28.4 pounds (25%), 37.5 inches (50%) practically perfect in every way! Love her.
And now… why she probably will need therapy when she is older:
Jerry is in class Monday and Thursday nights.  This past Monday, Jerry had a hardcore dental cleaning and he took the afternoon off for this and to come see Elijah play tennis. Afterward, we stopped by Chic-Fil-A for dinner to go.  He dropped us off at home and went to school.  We ate and played until bedtime.  And then off to bed with the kiddos.  Now, Grace has a hard time shutting the hell up lying down quietly sometimes.  She will stand on her bed and try to see Elijah on the top bunk (he is not innocent as he often encourages this and then plays innocent… sigh.)   Whatever.  Not okay, but whatever.  But this night… sigh.  THIS night, the little jerk of a child girl was trying to SWING herself up onto Elijah’s bed.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? “Grace to the back room!!! NOW!”  Grace puts her hands over her ears and (I kid you not) at the top of her lungs says, “LALALALALALALALALALALA!” (Oh Lord, help this child.) I snatched picked her up calmly and threw placed her on the guest room bed and slammed  closed the door, telling her that she needed to stay in this room until I came back to get her.  Then I proceeded to count to 4689 (this is how high I need to count in order to not beat my child senseless calm down.)  During my counting, I heard the door open.  I thought she just wanted the door open.  So I didn’t get up until I reached my calming number.  I REALLY should have kept counting.  I went in to get her.  To take her back to her bed.  AND then I went in… and this is what I saw.  Grace.  on the bed.  on her tummy, with her little legs kicking behind her.  reading her brother’s comic books.  DRINKING lemonade.  EATING chicken nuggets.  At this point, my body went through a transformation: I grew to about 10 feet tall, horns SPROUTED from my head, my eyes BULGDED from my head, and my voice took on a demonic tone.  I took the lemonade and chicken nuggets and THREW place them gently on the table.  I turned around and the following words came out of my mouth, “IF YOU OPEN THIS DOOR AGAIN, YOU WILL SLEEP OUTSIDE!!!!!!”  This in the demon voice.  I then slammed the door, thinking that she was very lucky there was not a Grace sized hole in the wall.  I went back and started counting again.  Cause I felt like a total jerk… but REALLY?  drinking and eating in bed when you KNOW you are in trouble are never a good thing.  If only, this is where the evening ended.  If only she had gone back to bed and gone the fuck to sleep (seriously need THIS book.)  BUT she didn’t.  I did put her in her bed.  I hugged her and kissed her goodnight.  I THOUGHT that things were going to be calm now.   sigh.  “water, water,water, water,water WAter, WATer, WATEr, WATER, WATER, WATER (really trying to ignore her.  REEEEEAAAALLLLLLYYYYY…I mean House was on.) WATERWATERWATERWATER.” 
“Grace, you had lemonade, you may not have water.  You—“ “WATERWATERWATER”
“EHEM, if you would stop screaming, you wouldn’t need water.  you MAY NOT have water.”
“I NEEEEEEDWATERMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!!!!  WATERWATERWATER!!!”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!”  At this point, I yank her up by her hair help her out of bed, drag walk her to the kitchen, and shove the goddamn water down her throat give her a sip of water, then marched her back to bed, told her to shut the fuck up and go the hell to sleep lie down and be quiet.  To which she looked at me and said, “Mama, I don’t like you.”  to which I responded, “I could really care less.  Cause right now, I love you, but REALLLLLLY don’t like you. AT. ALL.”
And, of course, I felt like a total ass.  After crying a little calming down, I went in and snuggled with her a little bit and gave lots of hugs and kisses.  And she said she was sorry and gave me huge squeezes and kisses.  So, ya know, the insanity of that 45 minutes melted a bit and she went to sleep and slept soundly. 
When these moments happen, I can only hope that the lasting damage isn’t permanent.  I do love her wholeheartedly, I FEAR that when she nears her teenage…or even preteen years we are going to have some knock down drag out fights.  And that hurts my heart.  But I hope she remembers that I do love her with every ounce of my being.  Who wouldn’t love this face?