Mommy Awards

     I just thought I'd throw it out there that I think there should be mommy awards for certain things. Like today, Ashley threw a monster tantrum because I told her we were having macaroni and cheese for lunch but it had to cook first. You would have thought the world was coming to an end! I calmly put her in her room and told her she could come out when she was done crying and shut the door. It got really quiet (I thought she might have fallen asleep since she was pretty tired) and when lunch was ready I went in to get her. Upon opening the door I saw that she had ripped half the wipes out of the container and had wiped her nose with every single one.
     You would think it's a blessing that a child likes to have her face wiped but at that moment I was not happy. But I did not make a face, I did not yell, I did not swat her hand, I calmly picked her up, strapped her in the high chair and set her up for lunch. Then I went in a re-folded the wipes to put back into the container (I know they're slightly dirty but when money is tight who cares. If she wanted to be cleaned with nice, new wipes then she should have thought about that before throwing them all over the room.) I felt like this was a small victory but worthy of an award nonetheless. My child purposely does things she knows I will get very angry over so that she can feel satisfaction at making me angry (who would have thought this was possible for a not-quite-two-year-old? not me...). By remaining calm and not giving in to anger (which blew over in about 30 seconds, I'm just not usually patient enough to hold it in that long) I won! I won, I won, I won!!! She usually wins. Not gonna lie.
     So anyway, I felt like it was a very small victory in what is going to be a very long battle and I figured any success needs to be acknowledged. ;) I'm excited and I hope the rest of the day goes this well on my end. :)