Annual blog post

I see that another eleven and a half months have gone by since I made a blog post. Frankly, the only reason I've got time to post today is because I'm sick and took the day off from work! However, this year it's not the kid's fault that I'm so busy. Things really have gotten easier now that Elena is almost six years old: no diapers, no sippy cups, no special food, no special gear for going out. She is much more self-sufficient in general.

However, with the self-sufficiency, and with all the new knowledge garnered from school, she's much more prone to attitude and talking back. (Yes, she's a girl, and I knew this was part of the package.) This has led to some less-than-stellar parenting moments on my part. Earlier this week, she was stalling and defying me at bedtime. I got so fed up that I finally said, "You'd better get in timeout, or I'm going to kill you!" Normally, I'm good about only threatening things that I'm going to follow through on, and my daughter knows this. As I was stomping off down the hall, I heard her little voice piping up from timeout corner: "Mommy? Are you really going to kill me?"