What a Day!

Today did not start out so good. Well, let's just say yesterday didn't end so good and it continued to today. Stephanie fell in the driveway yesterday and banged up her knees, elbows and her big toe. This commenced with about 45 minutes to an hour of crying and of course fussiness the rest of the night. For those of you who don't know, Stephanie is definitely my drama queen. I tried to be really sympathetic and held her for about 30 mintues. I offered a wet paper towel, ice pack, bandaids, medicine, phone calls to grandma---you name it I offered it and nothing was good enough. When I asked her what she wanted she said that she wanted me to hold her. So I did! For about 30 minutes I was okay with holding her, but after that I was ready for her to be over it and let me up...I had things to do you know. Okay, so Chris got home finally and she did finally stop the major whaling(sp). We had dinner and then her friends came over and she bounced right from the dinner table up the stairs to play. I announed it was time for the friends to go home and for her and Katie to collect the trash to which Stephanie announced she couldn't because she was hurting. The next battle was the shower. I proceeded to make her get in the shower despite Chris's insistance that we should just let that one alone for tonight. I insisted she had to have a shower because she was filthy and her hair was terribly sweaty from all the crying. Needless to say, I put her in the shower and left only to hear her screaming of how badly it hurt. I need to add at this point that despite my patience wearing thin I was a bit sorry I had done this. So, I turned the shower off and got her out and proceeded to sponge bathe her since I was certain that going to be dirty was not an option tonight. I bathed her on the counter and then proceeded to wash her hair in the bathroom sink. Chris walked in and said how uncomfortable and awkward we both looked. Stephanie looked at him and said "I'm just fine with this!" We all just laughed and decided that at least the ice was broken at this point. The rest of the night went well and she went to bed without any trouble. Okay, Stephanie wakes up this morning and is at the top of the stairs crying and whaling again at how bad her knees hurt and she can't walk. (you know the stiff feeling of a scraped knee). I carried her down the stairs with the hope that eventually she would stop her fussing. So, she watches tv while I get dressed and then we proceed to the breakfast table all the while she is still moaning and groaning off and on. After breakfast I tell her that I will give her Motrin. I am still calm at this point and carrying her around and catering to her. We get upstairs and I brush her teeth and go to give her the Motrin. She tells me how nasty it is and I tell her to drink it anyway so it will make her feel better. I even gave her a glass of water to chase it down with! Well, we end with her spitting the motrin in the sink and me spanking her and then putting her on the floor and hitting the counter with the wooden spoon out of great amounts of frustration! This of course makes her more upset and she continues to whale. So, I do what I do not want to do and I call her daddy. I hate it when I have to admit that I can't handle a situation. So, daddy calms her down and as he says he pulls out his bag of tricks and tells her if she will take the Motrin that I'll get her milkshake. May I add that I by no means think that she deserves a milkshake at this point. We proceed thru the rest of the getting dressed routine and I carry her downstairs and get her shoes on and put her in the car. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I had to go to Bible study this morning and I am a facilitator so I was trying really hard to to miss it or be late! We get to church and I think that I have found my child again. She proceeds to get out of the car and says that she can walk now! Phew, she's back! Not so quick. We get into the church and I proceed to drop her off. She gets very upset because I had told her that she and A. would be coming with me because I didn't think that they would let A. go in the nursery since she was not registered(I was watching her today while L. was at a meeting). Stephanie, begins to whale again and pitch a fit. Thankfully, I go to church there and the nursery director just helped me push her in the door and then I tried to regain my composure to walk into Bible study. God is gracious though. I was refreshed and renewed when I left Bible Study. Stephanie stopped crying within 5 minutes and by the time I picked her up she was running down the hallway. I was glad to be over this part of my day. We'll see how bath time goes tonight!