The Best Mom Ever?

I seriously doubt it.

But the girls and I did have a very fun day today!  We went to Chuck E Cheese this morning, getting there early and having the place to ourselves for over an hour.  Do you know how much fun it is to have an entire arcade to yourself?  If you don't, get to Chuck E Cheese when they open!  =)  After we used up an obscene amount of money in tokens, we took our 153 tickets to the store and got two small toys (that I had to pitch in another 50 cents for!).

For lunch we headed to Chic Fil-A.  For the first time I saw why it's such a big hit with the mommy crowd.  They saw me lugging my writhing, over-grown toddler around and carried my tray to the table.  And then got me condiments..... How nice!  (I don't care if they do this to everyone - I feel loved.)

When we were done stuffing our faces with fried chicken and waffle fries I introduced the girls to the play room.  Since I can read the sign that's posted "Children Must Be Supervised At All Times" I actually SUPERVISED my children.  By sitting my derriere down IN the playroom and keeping an eye on my kids.  Novel concept, it seems.  So many parents opened the door, tossed their kids inside, and then disappeared to the depths of the restaurant.  I'm talking LITTLE kids....Libby's age!  And one of them smelled like they needed a diaper change.  Two other moms were in the playroom as well, which I admit made it crowded, but c'mon people!  These are small children!  It's one thing if you can snag a seat right next to the windows and can see what's going on, but some of these kids went running off into the other side of the restaurant.  It is situations like these that makes it hard for parents not to judge one another.  What seems like harmless fun for one parent may be more like common sense to another. 

Anyway, before I started to pat myself on my back from my superior parenting abilities I had to reflect.......

Once upon a time, not so many years ago, I was a parent to one child.  An only child.  I studiously perused parenting books, magazines, and websites, finding a solution to every parenting problem encountered.  Anna, for her part (once she got over the colic and lack of sleep - not those were bad weeks), was a fairly easy going little person.  We could easily manipulate her - no, I am not above manipulating good behavior out of my children - by pretending to cry.  Or, if she was caught misbehaving it was a simple matter to tell her "time out" and she would dutifully stick her little nose in the nearest corner.

I will admit there were more than a few times when I would push my perfectly behaved child (I would bribe her with lollipops) past other screaming toddlers in the grocery store and think quite highly of my parenting abilities.  Yes, with our one, solitary, well-behaved child we were very excited at the prospect of adding another.  After all, we nurtured her into the compliant creature she was, right?

Wrong.

Almost 4 years after becoming parents for the first time we were blessed with another dark-haired newborn beauty.

I suspected a hint of stubbornness long before Libby made her appearance.  Even before she was born she would throw a full-blown fetal hissy fit if I sat in a position she didn't care for.  But, never-the-less, as we drove off from the hospital with our new tiny treasure we were on cloud nine.

In many ways, Libby was such an easy baby....compared to Anna, who like I mentioned above, screamed with colic for hours every night and then only slept a few minutes at a time.  Did you know lack of sleep is used as torture? 

But....at times our darling baby girl would wail....scream...holler at the world in general.  And for what cause?  She didn't get her way.  She didn't like her carseat.  She didn't like to be held like that.  She wanted that toy, not this toy.

Still, it was amazing to watch people being drawn to her.  From the time she was just weeks old people would follow her around stores, acting totally ridiculous to get her to smile at them.  Strangers would ask to hold her (I realize this sounds creepy, but I guess you just had to be there).  Waitresses would bring their waitressing friends over just to look at her. 

As she grew, Libby developed a personality all her own.  She's feisty and fiery and volatile and comical and completely unpredictable.  She resists all the discipline tricks I honed on her older sister.  She frequently is the screaming child in the shopping cart.  Or, just as frequently she's smiling at and charming all the people she can. 

I still have not found that magic something that she responds to.  Time outs look more like rabid wild monkey attacks.  Pretending to cry sends her into gales of laughter.  Redirection causes a hand and foot pumping tempter tantrum.

Last night I turned her crib into a toddler bed, thinking she'd be happy to get a "big girl bed" - seeing as how she's been hopping out of her crib for several days.  She was happy at first....until it sunk in that this was her bed and she would be expected to sleep in it.  She was almost inconsolable at bedtime.  She grabbed the discarded side and tried to put it back on.  Eventually she calmed down enough to fall asleep - and then slept all night - but, sheesh!  The drama!

Potty training is just not going well.  She knows what to do.  She just doesn't seem to care where she does it.  I'm not sure if that means she's not ready, or she's stubborn, or lazy, or what have you.  After she peed on Anna's bed and my couch already this week I don't know what to do!  Any tips??

Libby has definitely taught me that big personalities can come in small packages!  I love her dearly, as well as Anna, but daily I have to just look at her and say, "Oh Libby!"

I doubt there is a "best mom ever".  I'd venture to guess that many of us have times we don't know what we're doing and end up simply getting through the day and praying that our children won't need therapy when they grow up.  The best thing we can do is love them unconditionally and be consistant with the "rights and wrongs".....and occasionally show them a really fun day and encourage them to be kids.  Maybe even act like one yourself. ;-)