Big Girl

Ok, it won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me if I say that I'm more than a teeny bit anal. I had a color-coded timeline for the week before our wedding for family members and wedding participants. I do packing lists for our family before each trip in Excel (and save them all). And I carry around a little spiral notebook that contains lists of things I need to do (long and short term), groceries we need and clothing that the kids need. Each night I pick up (and sort) all of the kids' toys.

So you'll understand why it bothers me so much when my kids don't snap into line and follow the perfect structure of the lives that I've planned for them. Sometimes I have trouble letting them do their own thing. And lately that's all Mia wants to do....

Lately she doesn't want to lie down to change her diaper. She resists a lot of the clothing I pick out for her to wear. And today she had a complete meltdown because I tried to peel her Clementine for her.

Last week my friend (who has three daughters) said that sometimes she just lets the girls do whatever they want to do, because she doesn't want them to be on such a tight leash that they have to stage a huge rebellion when they reach adolescence.

I thought a lot about this.

So I've started asking Mia "where" she wants to change her diaper. She'll usually go ahead and do it if she gets to choose the place. I drew the line at the bathtub, otherwise we've been experimenting all over the house. I'm letting her pick her own outfits (although she keeps going for these ugly, ugly, ugly purple cords from Old Navy). And today I gave into the possibility of a big sticky pulpy mess in the back seat and let her peel the Clementine.

And she showed me up. It was perfectly, daintily peeled.... each piece of peel handed personally to me in the front seat, instead of deposited on the floor for posterity. And hopefully we'll still be speaking when she hits high school.