battles and wars.

This is what happens when daddy dresses Carly in the morning:

Ha! Actually, Chris is good at dressing her, and it was sure nice to have him home to do it! This is actually what happens when your child demands a dress EVERY SINGLE DAY.

You see, in my long two years of parenthood, I've learned to pick my battles. When fall came and temperatures cooled, we set aside some money to get Carly fall clothes. I got her jeans and leggings and long sleeved shirts. But Carly had spent the majority of the summer in summer dresses, and she was not about to let them go. Every morning was a battle. Screaming and crying . . . needing a dress, not those lousy jeans. And every morning I would give in, thinking a) she'd get over it, and b) it wasn't worth the stress. Well, I was right on one account: it wasn't worth the stress. Is she over the dresses? No. Every morning, one of the first things she says, still standing in her crib, is "I need my dress!". So we put shirts and leggings on under the sleeveless summer dresses. Some of them are short enough now that they are kind of like tunic tops anyway. She looks ridiculous sometimes, but for the most part, we pull it off pretty well. I probably look like one of those moms who forces her girl to wear a dress every day. But I have searched high and low for simple cotton long sleeved dresses. Why is this such a foreign concept? Even sweater dresses have short sleeves. Bizarre. So long sleeved dresses are on the list for anyone who requested ideas for Carly, because we need to mix it up just a little, and our supplies are dwindling.

Another battle is still raging in the C House. Eating. Sweet, delicious dinner time has become a time of pure dread for this mama. Carly is a notoriously lousy eater. I always say she is a lousy eater and a mighty fine sleeper, so I'll take it. But as she gets older, I feel like she has to learn to eat, and this little battle has become an all out war.

She eats pancakes, fruit, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and grape tomatoes without fail. Expand beyond that, and you're asking for a fight. I stay pretty basic for breakfast and lunch, but I'm not going to plan  dinner around those foods (umm . . . impossible), and like I said, she needs to learn to eat. If she only wasn't so stubborn. Yesterday was a prime example. I made spaghetti squash and steak. I've found one trick to get her to eat is include some sort of sauce to dip things in, because she likes sauces. So I make up her little plate and include ketchup to dip her steak in, and corn, which she usually likes. She eats about 5 kernels of corn, eats just the ketchup off her fingers, chugs her milk, and declares that she is done. This is common behavior, and often we say you have to eat so many bites, then you can get down. She wasn't having it. We were supposed to decorate the Christmas tree, which she was very excited about, so we told her she had to have two bites before we could decorate the tree. TWO bites, people. I even got her a new little plate with only two bites on it. She sat in that chair screaming for about an hour. Chris and I both finished our meals and left the kitchen, and she sat. Finally, it was bath time. We didn't get to decorate the tree. She never ate those two bites. We took her out of the chair, put her in timeout, showed her how now we don't get to decorate the tree, and she went straight to the bath, no worse for wear, really. I cannot wrap my head around being so adverse to eating TWO BITES that she would sit there for an hour. And this is not the first time we've had a dinner table stand-off, though it is the first time she didn't end up eating her bites. But this is a battle I think is more important than what she prefers to wear. Its about developing healthy eating habits and getting used to a variety of foods. Its about showing respect to the person who makes your meal. But at the same time, she is just two. I don't know. Any tips with this one? That doesn't involve preparing her a separate meal every night, because I'm lucky to get one meal on the table, to be honest.

[she is seriously in love with her "yellow smiley balloon". a dollar well-spent.]

The thing about our sweet Carly is she is so stinking smart and cute, and she knows it. I can't get enough of her: her words, her faces, her giggles, her ideas. She is pure joy in a dress. Except at dinner time.