The Witching Hour

     I know you all are very familiar with the dreaded Witching Hour. Technically, the Witching Hour is around 2-3am, but I'm talking about children here. For my little one, this is typically between 3pm and 4pm. 

     Ariel hasn't napped regularly since last summer, the summer she turned three. I remember the naps with fondness, because kids have a ton of energy but that energy runs out sometime. For Ariel, it's always around 3pm. Today was no exception. She gets cranky, even more impatient, and today, grandma wasn't here so she thought she could get away with acting all kinds of crazy. I'm not even sure why that is, because she I don't let her get away with acting a fool either. 

     It was a fairly normal morning (the exception being that it was her grandma's birthday). So when her grandma needed to go to the store and then to pick up her cousins, Ariel was totally cool with staying with me, but then changed her mind. After getting Ariel ready and heading out the door, grandma realized she had no carseat for her, so Ariel ended up kicking it with me instead. We always have a good time, so it was cool. I wanted to finish cleaning before the boys came over, so I streamed The Powerpuff Girls (her current fave) from my phone to the tv via ChromeCast, and went about my business. 

     I dusted. I vacuumed. I put dishes away. It was good. Ariel and I screamed the show's theme song at the top of our lungs. Normal. She asked for a banana, so i cut it up for her and gave it to her on a plate. She decided it was cuddle time. Though she does love a cuddle, I should have realized the order. But I didn't. After cuddling for 3.5 minutes, she asked if she could play on her tablet, but then gave it to me, saying she was going to make a tower with her dominos and then we'd trade. Okay, fine. I kind of zoned out, trying to figure out how the heck to even use the thing, but kind of half-assed. Then Johnny/Daddy came home. YAY. He was off work a few hours early, so I jumped up and hugged him and we had a "family hug" in Ariel's words. Cuteness.

     Then it happened. I reminded Ariel that she had her banana and she told me "I'm building my tower right now." Okay. 

"I know. Keep building. I'll just put the banana right next to you so you can do both."

"But I'm building right now."

"You can do both. Take bites in between building. You asked for this banana not that long ago, so I want you to eat it."

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Okay, that's exaggerating, but not by much.

She jumped up and was stomping her foot, with her arms crossed, saying she was building. I told her to not stomp her foot at me, and she whined, and stomped it again. So I told her to get her little butt into time-out (we don't spank), and said I was taking her dominos away and she could get them back later, because she wasn't being nice. 

She lost her shit. She started screaming, and Johnny/Daddy jumped in, telling her to knock it off, and to put her nose to the wall as I'd told her to do, and she was yelling, crying, and basically, she was pissed. 

After a few minutes in time out, she was sniffling, and cuddly. Weird how that happens. Every time. 

The rest of the day was awesome. 

Before that, while Johnny was at work and Grandma was gone, Ariel had grabbed some jumbo marshmallows from the pantry, and after we had each taken a bite out of ours, I taught her the "lick and stick," sticking mine to my nose. She laughed and did the same. Four year olds are fun.

...

Later in the day, Ariel's grandma returned with her boy cousins (Ezra, 7, and Eli, 3) in tow. They all went swimming and it's always so fun to watch them. It's awesome to swim, too, but I was just wanting to watch and take pictures today. Good thing I did! Today Ariel was very brave and jumped off the diving board on her own for the first time! She adores and looks up to Ezra so he really influenced it, I think. But once she did it, she didn't want to stop!

It started with Eli kind of assisting her and shadowing her to make sure she jumped out far enough.

 Until she really didn't need him to.

"That was all her!" -Proud big cousin.

 Look how happy she was!

I love how adorably tiny she is! (She was a preemie and at 4 years old, only weighs 33lbs). Her little pre-jump position is just too cute for words.

Mid-jump. 

 Flying.

 That smile though.

Through all the new sassy attitude, the tantrums, foot stomps, etc...just seeing her smile...seeing her happiness...feeling the unconditional love I have for this little one makes eeeeeverything else completely worth it.