Nothing makes parenting more challenging than losing your electricity for 12 hours.
I got to put my positivity and patience project to work today, and not to ring my own bell or anything, I did pretty darn well (granted it is only 2:15 pm). Unfortunately my husband didn't get to witness much of this patience before he left for the office, but I swear I was on my game from about 8:15 am onward.
The babe and I didn't have any battles. Oh, except for when she walked down the stairs towards the little guy and I in her tights (it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the house) and tried to punch me. I had just been struggling to get her to put layers of warm clothes on, and after much back and forth, had given up. Clothing is our new war zone and I am trying to not make it a HUGE issue every day, but today I was pretty set on her dressing warmly, seeing as there was no heat in the house and it's the middle of winter.
As I mentioned, I had given up and told her I wasn't going to fight with her and if she didn't want my help getting dressed, I was going downstairs with the little guy. This set her off into a big tizzy of yelling and throwing things around her room. I was almost at the bottom of the stairs when she appeared, in a long sleeve T-Shirt and tights and proceeded to walk down the stairs. I asked if she thought she was coming downstairs dressed like that, and she replied, "No, I'm coming down the stairs to hit you." At least she's honest. She struck out at me and missed (obviously she blew the element of surprise) and I proceeded to walk to the kitchen with the little guy to get him some Cheerios. I didn't yell, I didn't follow her begging for compliance, I just walked away.
Within minutes she was downstairs giving me a hug and saying sorry. I asked her if she wanted my help, and we went back up and sorted the clothing issue out. I managed to get her into 3 layers which was close to the 4 layers the little guy and I had on.
Anyway, despite this one hiccup, I feel like a champ. The kids and I read a gazillion books, we snuggled under blankets, we played together, and we managed to survive until the power came back on sometime after 11 am. I remained positive, calm and collected. I knew eventually we were going to be OK (as in not shivering). I was just glad that eventually ended up being before the kids bed time tonight. Not sure they would have been fans of being stuck in a dark house with no heat, again. Hopefully I will still be able to feel proud by the end of the day. And hopefully we won't lose power again.
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