Headband Hell

So on Sunday Caitlin and I went school clothes shopping for Ally-bug with Ally and her mom at the beach. Ally starts kindergarten this fall so it was a "girls day" at the beach. Well, almost a girls day. Baby Matthew was allowed to tag along, but being the sweetheart that he is, he slept most of the time. Our original intent had been to have a picnic lunch on the beach after shopping, unfortunately it rained. So we wandered through the outlet mall in Lincoln City and bought the girls "princess crowns" and had a picnic in the car while looking at the beach. Caitlin was especially good because we were not shopping for her-only Ally. She mentioned a couple of times that it was hard to shop for someone else and not get anything for herself. When it's her turn in a couple of weeks to go shopping for new fall/winter clothes she's not going to take anyone with her except Mommy and Daddy. All in all the day was pretty fun. Then yesterday Caitlin decided that she had to wear her new crown to school and life was good. Today on the other hand when it came time to walk out the door, she decided that she need to wear the crown again, only it had to pull her bangs back.

I tried to put the stinkin' thing on the way she wanted but after 3 absolutely "unacceptable" attempts she started a full on foot stomping, arm flailing, scream fit. Which pretty much hit all of my buttons and made me consider breaking the new prized crown in half and dumping it in the garbage. Which I of course told her would happen if she didn't get herself under control. My daughter is incredibly intelligent and so stopped said temper trantrum- for about 5seconds. Then it turned into a whining 'you're not doing it right' fit to which I asked her "does this whiney behavior EVER get you what you want?" She answered "No it gets me into timeout." SO WHY OH WHY does she do this stuff- and why more importantly does she do it when we're walking out the door?! We made it to school and work on time, but the entire three minute drive from home to daycare was spent getting a lecture, for which I (at the end) felt guitly about because when we got to the school she asked for a napkin to dry her tears. She had been silently crying the whole way to school while I lectured on appropriate behavior regarding head bands and getting dressed. I didn't have time to snuggle her as long as I wanted before I had to leave for work from her daycare so I left her tennis shoes (which she has to wear instead of the flip-flops that she went to school in) for her teachers to help her put on, gave her a hug and a kiss and walked out the door. Because I was feeling guilty about our fight this morning, really who is the adult here?(I should have handled it differently- I could have just said ok we'll fix it at school let's go instead of saying FINE YOU DO IT ), I called her school to talk to her for a minute. The child REJECTED my call, she told her teacher she didn't want to talk to me. I didn't give her the choice, I told the teacher to put her on the phone anyway. She had a smile in her voice when she talked to me and acted like it was all no big deal, while I went on about my day with a stomach ache because I have felt so bad about having a fight first thing in the morning! Seriously, children should not have the ability to cause their parents so much grief! Granted my mother would probably say this was payback for having been a completely rotten child- but still! We'll see what the true result is when I pick her up at the end of the day, since I am just on my lunch break now, but I'd be willing to put money down that I will still feel like an ogre and she will be just fine.