Whispering

Allow me to give you a brief run down of the day.

Woke up at 730. Let the dogs out. Yelled for them to come in. And yelled again. And yelled again. My throat is hoarse by the time they actually come in.
Go back in the house. Turn on the news. ''MOMMY!'' (Because if you are not right in front of them you may have disappeared. A 4 year old understands that toys don't cease to exist because they can't see them, but moms are a different story). Go into the bedroom. Give her jeans, clean underwear, a long sleeve shirt, and a tshirt (it was a whopping 9 degrees today). She looks at me like I'm crazy.
Coming from the dining room I hear dad say ''what about trucks?'' Ok I'm assuming this has something to do with the news, stick my head out of my bedroom door and say I have no idea, I'm getting Alexis dressed.
Go back in. She is still not dressed. Tell her to get dressed and come to the living room. Go back to the living room. Sit down. ''Mooooooom'' She's having trouble with her jeans. Help her into her jeans. Go find socks. Hand her socks, sit down. ''Moooooooooom'' She can't get her turtleneck on. Help her with the turtleneck and just stay put. End up helping her get the tshirt on. Layering is still a challenge.
Turn on cartoons. Stand up to get a drink. She then wraps herself around my leg. ''No mom stay here. Stay here. Stay here. Stay here.'' She is barely breathing in between these statements, not even close to giving me time to respond. Finally gether to listen, tell her I'm getting a drink and coming back. Now she wants chocolate milk. No strawberry milk. No orange juice. No lemonade. No strawberry milk. No....At this point I stop her, tell her to stop for a minute and decide what she wants. Chocolate milk.
As I come back in she looks at me and says I want breakfast mommy. This continued on all morning.

Leaving the room became a wrestling match.

Going to the bathroom because a public performance (I really need to start locking the door).

Asking her to do her chores becomes a lesson in patience.

And then I think that going to town will be better. We stood at the corner for 3 minutes (which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to keep waving drivers past) because she wouldn't hold my hand to cross the street.

She wanted to take off her sweatshirt (oh yes, I forgot to mention that she spilt chocolate milk all over her shirt before we left, so she had to change). I say no and try to distract her.

She wants to get the horribly gory movie because it has dolls on the front. IT IS A SLASHER FILM! Who thinks of the packaging for these, really?

She wants to scan her own books. Which would be fine except it takes her too long between each book which results in the computer logging me out and me having 6 slips for all of our books.

Then to the grocery store. What can I say, I was niavely optimistic. Or a glutton for punishment. Or a little bit of both. And feeling a little bit guilty about having to go back to work full time next week and not having days that I could spend goofing around with my child.

She wants a lemon. And fruit by the foot. And brownies. And cheese sticks. And we need more vitamins mom. And a lollipop. And a...You get the idea. I said yes to some, no to others. She went to melt down once. I looked at her and very quietly told her that she could stand up and act like a big girl so we could finish our shopping or we would have to leave and she would not get anything that she picked out. She got her act together.

And this has continued into the evening. At this point I have walked away a few times, telling her that when she was ready to talk to me, I would listen but if she was going to scream I would leave her until she calmed down. I have refused to give her a toy that has to be kept up except when she's playing with until she cleans up the current mess. And I refuse to speak above a whisper.

My throat is burning like the sun. A combination of yelling at the dogs, trying to be heard over a tantrum, and most likely getting sick (it's murphys law...I start work monday, I am getting sick). And only when I whisper does it not hurt.

Today has been a day. Tomorrow will hopefully (please please!) be better.