4.24.12: a day in the life

today's saga of events deserved a full post. I'm sure one day i will look back on today and laugh, just as my mom did when i told her all of this. Probably tomorrow. And I'm not saying this to complain, and please, no judgement needed. I'm saying this because my child is 100% crazy and I want to remember that about her. So here it goes:

-Wake up this morning and took my dad to the airport. It was sad saying goodbye to Papa. We will miss having him around.
-Caitlin starts throwing mini fits on the way home but i decide to run a couple errands anyway. My 3 stops ranged anywhere from a 4-6 in behavior out of 10. (including spilling yogurt raisins everywhere on the floor multiple times, taking clothes off of every shelf, throwing a fit at the cash register, completely running out of the store and almost into the street when i had my back turned, and eating snacks being a good girl).
 

She just HAD to wear this hat she saw in Hobby Lobby.

-After our last stop at Hobby Lobby she decides that she wants to walk to the car. I'm trying to teach her that when we walk in the parking lot she HAS to hold my hand no matter what. She wasn't having it and started throwing a fit and squirming and sitting down because she wanted to walk by herself. So she decides to run away down the sidewalk strip in front of the store. She stops about 6 feet away and gives me her 'tude. I try to get her to come back by me, blah blah blah she's refusing. She finds a shopping cart that someone had parked on the sidewalk and pushes it into the parking lot. She really got a kick out of that one. I have to run and grab the cart before it hits someone's car while praying that she doesn't follow me out into the street. She stayed on the sidewalk and laughed at me instead. Then I picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming to her carseat.
-You can imagine how enjoyable that car ride was home but we made it. Then she wanted to go in the backyard so we went. She started running around and doing whatever so I watered the plants. Then she decides to play in the puddles and start making mud pies out of the freshly watered dirt. She grabs scoops of mud and begins to slather it on every.single.thing.possible. And me? I just let it happen. I thought as long as it keeps her busy and happy i can hose everything down. I was in my lounge chair and not about to get up.
 
-So this continued for a little while and then when everything was sufficiently muddy i decided it was time to go back in. So I stripped her down and sprayed her off with the hose. She HAD to have her diaper off so she was 100% naked in our backyard and then as soon as i put the hose away and turned around to go inside, she was back in the mud. So i carried her in and put her in the laundry room sink to finish cleaning her off.
- After i got her out of the sink she took off running to the bathroom. She went in the bathroom and wanted to go potty so i let her sit on the toilet and wipe and then tried to get her to come to her room to get a diaper on. She wouldn't. She was climbing in and out of the tub, running around, etc. So i tried to pull the "ok bye" and left her in there hoping she would get bored without an audience. But no. I got a phone call i had to take and from the other room i could hear her splashing in the toilet bowl. Great. So then i got off the phone and walked in to see this:

Enough is enough. Got her out of the toilet and wiped her down. Then took her in her room and closed the door and finally at least got a diaper on her. The she started running around her room and climbing on and off her chair and jumping from her chair to her ottoman and emptying her closet and doing all manner of mischief that you can get into in a small room with the door closed and a tired and slow mom.
-Finally we tried to have lunch. Didn't go very well since she kept yelling and pitching fits, etc. Got a few bites down and then went back to the room to put her down for a nap. That didn't go very well either (surprise surprise). I think maybe there was a period of 20 minutes of sleep in there somewhere.
- I left her in her room awake for as long as i felt i needed to rest for just a few minutes and get something to eat and get ready to face her again. (not gonna say how long that was) Walked in to find her ready to go, jumping around her crib. Literally jumping and running around.
-Luckily the rest of the day went a little smoother, no toilet climbing or mud pies. I took her to a friend's house for about an hour and she played with some kids there (the Young Women were doing a babysitting activity so they asked me to bring her). That SAVED me. I got to go to Walmart all by myself and it reminded me of this:
 
-Apparently she did great playing with the other kids and then i brought her home and was ready to put her to bed!
-After i dropped her off at the friend's i realized i had lost my phone. It was completely lost for about 2 hours and i had no recollections of where it could be. I tried to retrace all my steps and looked everywhere to eventually find it (through the "find my iphone app.. it works) IN MY PURSE. I had it with me all along. Ok so maybe Caitlin isn't the only crazy one.

I love my little girl. I really do love her so much and it is amazing how she can be such a little hooligan and then flip a switch and be so sweet the next second. She just has so much energy inside that little body it really does amaze me. She makes me laugh and keeps life interesting. She is wild but she's mine. And yes i think i will laugh about all her shenanigans.