Leila: Daddy, did you make this macaroni and cheese for me?
Daddy: Yes I did
Leila: Mommy, did you make anything on my plate for me?
Mommy: Not this time, Daddy made everything on your plate.
Leila: Oh, Thanks Daddy, you are the best!
Daddy: You are welcome Leila, YOU are the best.
Leila: I'm not the best, I'm the sweetest. You're the best Daddy!
I am writing this blog post a week removed from the day of incident. As I sit here now on the couch I am under a blanket I am sharing with Leila while I blog and she watches Sponge Bob. Right now, it seems kind of stupid to rehash in my mind a day when I felt a lot less impressed with my daughter, but then I think...I made this blog to share the good, the bad and the ugly, so get ready for some ugly.
Every Tuesday Cory works in Cedar Rapids and Leila and I are on our own for drop off/ pick up at daycare. Last Tuesday when I walked into Leila's classroom she greeted me with the usual giant hug and beautiful smile...the highlight of my day. From there it went down hill.
Mommy: Come on Leila, lets put your coat on and go home.
Leila: No
Mommy: Leila, Daddy and Zoey are at home waiting for us, we can't go until you put your coat on.
Leila: No!
Mommy: Do you want to go to see Baby Sawyer tonight?
Leila: Yes!
Mommy: Ok then, put your coat on.
Leila: No
Next came me leading Leila out to the main hallway at Love-A-Lot and trying to force her coat onto her arms. She threw herself on the floor and cried and kicked and screamed. I picked her up and managed to force her arms into her coat. As I held her in my arms I had never been so angry at her. Now, I know that some people spank their kids, and if that works for you, fine. We are not spankers, though at that moment I have never wanted to spank her so badly in my life. I got her into her car seat, where she stiffened up her back and refused to let me buckle her in. I slammed the door shut, got in the front seat and called Cory. I didn't expect him to do anything about it, but I really wanted to bitch about the situation, and Leila wasn't exactly good company at the time. By the time I got off the phone Cory had diffused me a little bit and as it turns out, Leila had calmed down as well. She said, "Mommy, I am ready to go now, buckle me." I got out and buckled her in, and as I pulled away from school I started to cry, and I cried all the way home. I hate hate hated the way I felt toward my own child. Thinking about it now still makes me really sad, especially as I see her sweet, calm little face sitting next to me. As we were driving home and I am crying Leila says to me, "Why are you sad mommy? I will give you a hug." That only made it worse.
The terrible twos are exactly that. Couple that with a mad case of pregnancy hormones, and the fact that Leila seems to inherited my temper and things are rough going at the Coobs' House. You should all feel very bad for Cory.
We didn't take any pictures Halloween night, but here is Leila testing out her "black scary kitty" costume. She was very frightening, just ask Cassie.
Halloween afternoon we drove to Champaign, IL to visit Cory's brother and family. We got there in time for Uncle Evan to give Leila a lesson in trick or treating, and then we took her out around their neighborhood.
She froze up as soon as we would get to the door at nearly every house we went to. As we approached she would say, "I am going to say trick or treat!" and then the door would open and she was like a deer in headlights. Better luck next year, and she still managed to get plenty of treats!
She was so funny though, when we saw people dressed up in scary costumes she would say, "That's not scary, that is just a fox." During our whole trick or treating adventure she kept repeating it. "That was a nice fox we saw, he wasn't scary." The nice fox she was referringn to was a pretty mean and nasty looking wolf, but she worked very hard to convince herself that he wasn't scary :)
The next day we went to a tailgate and then to the Iowa vs. Illinois football game. Leila enjoyed the tailgate. As you can see from the pictures she tried to take a little rest and she also stuffed her face with grapes. She was terrible during the game. She and I watched it from the concourse because she refused to sit in the bleachers. 
I woke up to Leila standing by my bedside. I said to her, "Leila, Barack Obama won, he is the new president!" She gave me a high-five. We rolled into work, and even though it hadn't rained there was a rainbow in the sky. No, I am serious, ask Cory. Today I am so proud of America, proud of Iowa and just down right giddy. God Bless America.
