The Trunk

When we were growing up, my uncle Oie would come to town and visit us and we LOVED Oie.  I still love Oie!  I vividly remember two things about Oie and my child hood - the extremely large phone (I'm talking like 4 feet long) he used to get chicks and him telling us he would throw us in the trunk if we didn't stop whining.  I don't remember being afraid of him when I said that, but I do remember him telling us and even going outside and taking a look at his trunk.  I'm pretty sure that made us stop whining, or at least go to another room to do it!

Today, I picked C up from school - she whined most of the way home.  We got home and got inside the house - she was on the floor crying within a few seconds.  We went over to Greg + Michelle's with my mom, Anna and Jack - outside she was throwing a fit and whining because she was afraid to go down the hill by herself.  We went to dinner - she was whining to get down.  

The text I sent to my uncle Oie today: I now understand the trunk.  

There is no doubt that Caroline is a strong willed, knows what she wants, little sassy pants.  I can handle all of that.  But the incessant whining and the repeatedly whined statements over and over again - it drives me INSANE!  Fridays are the worst because she has gone all week without a lot of napping and she is so tired she doesn't even know what is going on.  Even though I can understand the why behind what she is doing, it doesn't make it any easier to endure.  So, yes, tonight - I understand the trunk.

Through all of those moments of intense frustration and exhaustion with the whining, they are always followed by her belly laughs as she runs around with Anna and Jack, or her trying not to break a smile when I ask her to make a silly face, or her falling asleep on my chest after rocking for just a few minutes.  There is always something surrounding those moments that make me take a deep breath and realize how incredibly much I love that little girl.  Watching her Maggie Simpson her daci (pacifier) tonight, I was thinking about how grateful I am that I have a little girl that is so smart and healthy and learning new things every day.  There are a lot of people in this world that wish they could say that.  I have the joy and privilege of being the mama to an amazing little girl, but along with that comes the responsibility of raising her in to the person I hope she will be, and that is not always fun.  That means saying no, despite the fact that it will incite a riot.  That means letting her cry and fuss as she tries to put on her sunglasses because eventually she'll get it figured out and she'll be so proud of herself.  

So, yes, I understand the trunk and wanting to throw a fit throwing, fussing, whining little kid into it. But the good always outweighs the bad and at the end of the day, I am very lucky.  I am a mama.