Back on Track...

Lord Voldemort. Nurse Ratchid. Lex Luther. The Riddler. Simon Legree. Goliath. Hitler. The Evil Stepmother. The Wicked Witch of the West. The Hunter that shoots Bambi's Mother. Bill the Butcher.

I have felt a sort of kinship with these characters this past week. I wouldn't say I channeled them as I was trying to get my kid's behavior back on track, but there were times as I was looking down my daughters' disappointed faces while they wailed as if someone was torturing them ; that the thought crossed my mind that if they had their story to write, it would include a character named Mama. And she would most definitely be the villain.

But I'm happy to report my sweet girls are back. Their departure from behaving was happily short - lived and a direct result of my guilt surrounding their Dad leaving. I eased up, let them stay up late, sleep in my bed and let rules slip by the wayside. In response, they didn't know what the boundaries were and well...just plain ol' freaked out. They started literally climbing the walls and it was like my voice did not reach their ears. It was like they could not hear me. So, when I finally realized what was going on and that drastic measures would need to be implemented, I began 5 days of toddler boot camp in which I, the villainous Mama, stayed on top of each and every behavior. There were consequences for every infraction and rewards for every good choice. I want to believe I was like Vince Lombardi during these 5 days, tough but inspirational at the same time. But my nerves were shot and I know that I probably didn't reach any level of inspiration until at least day two and a half.

Now, things are great. I'm back to looking forward to seeing their little faces in the morning and after naptime. They have gone to bed and nap without incident for three days straight and they are back to listening to my directions. Now, please realize they are still three years old. They still lose their ever loving minds from time to time but I feel that I am back to being able to reel them in, get them back on track and things are back to normal. Normal around here is not little stepford kids that don't make any trouble. Normal for us is very loud, very busy, very messy but very happy and loving.

So am I back to feeling like Mary Poppins and Maria VonTrap? Well, not quite yet. But the Mom from the Cosby show is looking like a definite possibility at this point. And she did just fine. So I think things are going to be okay.