"Got it?"

Yesterday was a hard day for Ellie (and her mama and her brother). She has fallen head-first into the "terrible" part of the terrible two's and has developed a really nasty little streak. Any time a nap or bedtime is mentioned she screams, "I NOT DO IT!!!" Many nights she is carried upstairs and put in the bed and cries the entire time, "I NO DO IT!!!".

Yesterday she "not" take a nap and I didn't feel like fighting her on it -- so we skipped nap. I paid for THAT decision later.

Josh slept in and then went to a friends house to play video games. John came back with him and they played video games in Josh's room for a while and then, about 4:30, we saw the first of Josh for the day. Ellie, who asked about him, ALL DAY, was pretty tired and put out at that point and was absolutely cranky.

She told me, at one point, that she wanted a snack. It was pretty close to dinner, so I was pondering what to make her and decided on some peaches. As I was getting them ready, she rounded the corner and said, "I SAID I WANT A SNACK - GOT IT?" I whipped my head around, certain I had misunderstood what she said and said, "What did you say?" and she repeated it. UGH. Needless to say, a conversation ensued about how to ask for a snack nicely and how that was ugly.

After her snack, she proceeded to start fighting with Josh about everything. She hit him with anything she could put her hands on (her broom, doll, hands). She ended up in permanent time out because everytime I put her in it and went back to cooking dinner, she was up and beating on him again. FINALLY, her daddy got home and I had some reinforcements to help out!! She was just a pistol all evening, fell asleep at 6:30, back up at 7:30 and back down again at 10:00.

I've decided she needs an opportunity to burn more energy as she is used to pre-school and play time. Today she is going to "Donalds" (ie., McDonalds) to the play land to play hard so she will nap!!

After long conversations about how God, mama, daddy, Joshua and Santa don't like hitting, her first words out of her mouth this morning were, "I not hit Bubba anymore." Time will tell!!