{the musings of a munchkin}

• It was around mid-morning, Ava had already had her breakfast (a strawberry Pop-Tart that she didn't finish) and a small snack of Cookie Crisp. It is not uncommon for her to ask all. day. long. if she can have a snack - to which my reply is usually "Just a few more minutes until lunch/dinner..." I say that hoping that she will eat a good meal instead of just a snack. I went back to what I was doing & she did the same.....so I thought. About 15 minutes later, I see her walk by my office with a bag of Goldfish crackers and a cup of water in her hand. I didn't give her either of which. Apparently she is just tall enough to reach into the "goodie cabinet" & find her fix - ...yep, she ate the whole bag of Goldfish (bought Sunday, mind you). I asked her "Ava, did you eat all of those Goldfish?" to which she ran off & hid behind the kitchen table - afraid she'd be in trouble for it, no less. Of course, I couldn't get onto her, poor kid, she was apparently just starving to death & her Mean-Ole-Mom wouldn't give her a snack, so she got her own - she was just trying to survive!
  

• She's not one for getting into trouble - as in she doesn't like it when she's in trouble. When we get onto her, she usually changes the subject to "Where's Stella?" or "Look at that ceiling fan, it's spinnin'!" Case-in-point: I don't typically let her have pens (paper is not her favorite thing to write on - she likes either herself or the walls), but I guess her Daddy let her have one at some point. We were sitting in the living room when I notice a mark on her leg. I asked her "Did you mark on your leg with a pen?" She started sinking down in the chair, trying to hid her leg under mine...."What?" she said... I asked her again "Did you mark on your leg?".... she replied "What?"...trying to act like she didn't hear me, I should speak up. I just went ahead & told her that she is not to have pens & we only mark on paper, otherwise, she could have done that all day....

• Speaking of "getting-on-to's" .... I have boycotted cleaning up the Playroom. I didn't make the mess & she's gotta' learn sometime. So it had been a few days of the disaster, and after I had asked her many a time, I finally asked D.Might to tell her to clean it up. It was right before bath time, I was in my office (yeah, I live in there, I know), so I could see all of this. He told her she needed to pick up her toys & put them away. She proceeded to pick up the toys in the living room & put them back in her Playroom. He then told her she needed to put away the toys in the Playroom, too - and this is what I saw: Ava running to her Playroom, head in hands, screamin' and cryin' - "I not want to! Please help me pick up my toys!" .... uh, negative. I can then hear her in her Playroom, banging things around, jibber-jabberin' (still crying hysterically) & started making out pieces of what she was saying. "....and Mommy and Daddy make me clean up my Playroom and I not want to and Stella acted ugly and (sniff, sniff, sniff) and I have to pick up my toys all by myself..." basically telling this sob story & how mean we are to her.....so I said "Who are you talking to?".... "I talkin' to Ashes! I tell her how I clean the Playroom...." Seriously, y'all....yes, I know where all this drama came from, but really - already having to get on your cell phone to vent it out - you gotta be kiddin' me!!