How to Get What We Want

I'm thinking this moring of the art of getting what you want. More to the point, how do little girls learn to get their way, or accept that they won't get their way, and change their tactics?

As I'm writing, I have my daughter curled up beside me, whining because she wants a puppy for her birthday. Her birthday - turning 5 - is becoming quite the event in her mind. She has plans, boy oh boy, and her party better not disappoint! she's planning everything, down to the decorations, the party favors, the guest list, the color of balloons. Everything. And she's changed her mind on all of it, at least twice.

As her mother, I can only listen, smile, and wait for her to change her mind for the thousandth time. She is a fickle little flower. A sweet, demanding little thing, with a disposition like a partly sunny day. One moment, she's sunshine and rainbows, and the next--she's a storm, ready to weep rain over the bitterness of her disappointment. I sit by, with sunscreen or umbrella handy, as one never knows what you're going to get.

Her little sis is easy. Easy to please. Easy to distract and make laugh. And though she gets frustrated with her little toddler body, me, and learning the boundaries, she is my bubble. The older one, she is another story. Who knows why. Some say drama-queen. To me, it's just her. Just typing this post, I've waited her out. Now she wants orange juice with the same abandon of the forgotten puppy.

This is motherhood.