Miss E's room - Middle

Well, 3 days later this is how far I've gotten on her room. I love how it's turning out. She is so excited because blue is her favorite color right now and she loves the "grass" on the bottom. Now I just have to paint the moulding and the closet and we're done!

We erred on the side of too much unscheduled time this weekend and that, coupled with the fact that Miss E hasn't had her own space, is not treating us well. We met some friends this morning at PlayDatePDX and Miss E was in a grumpy, bad mood. And that my friends, is never a good thing. That girl has the ability to be so difficult sometimes. She also has the capacity to be wonderful other times. I would say that 95% of the time she is very mature for 6, bright, empathetic, easy to take places and kind.

And then there's the other 5% of the time and whoa baby. When that time comes around, be prepared for rude, scowling, slightly mean with an inability to recover from the slightest thing. The more you get mad about it though, the worse it gets. So then we end up having a long cooling off period and then we talk about manners and expectations and getting over things and not being grumpy while playing with our friends and tone of voice....it's a long and exhausting process. The one thing I've realized through the years of dealing with this though, is that Miss E is who she is and she is lovely. We all have negative sides to our personalities and as one of my dear friends says "we all come in our own packages". I can't control her or how she acts. I can control the environment, my reactions and try and anticipate but other than that, I can't force her to act a certain way. Remember how I've said a few times that this is my year of letting go with Miss E? Well, this is one of those things. I am letting go of my responsibility for her behavior. She is six. She knows how people react to certain things and she is perfectly capable of making choices. Sometimes I don't like those choices and have to issue consequences, but I accept her for who she is. I'm no longer trying to change her. Sometimes she can be difficult. Most of the time she is wonderful and I have faith that someday she will make choices about behavior and mood that will make it easier.

And Peter came home today!