OMG! I cannot write that BIG ENOUGH! Ella had the breakdown to beat ALL breakdowns. It came out of NO WHERE too! We were leaving an indoor play area, she had done GREAT the whole time; listened, played well even left with out a fuss. We get to the major intersection between where the play area is and our car. Its a HUGE intersection, 6 lanes PLUS turning lanes. I hit the button, but she wanted to. So, I stepped back just enough for her to be able to hit it – but not enough that she could run out into the street. Well, this didn’t work at all… the chain of events had already started. Finally I picked her up so that I could just carry both kids through the major intersection. About half way through she FULLY lost her mind. She started kicking and screaming. I am now holding Bastion, our fruit in a Tupperware, her backpack and Ella – screaming bloody murder and kicking. She ends up kicking herself out of my arms and onto the ground… literally in teh MIDDLE OF THIS GIANT INTERSECTION. I am now trying to peal her off the pavement while she is still kicking and screaming, thus, here I am with two screaming kids, on my hands and knees trying to get a grip of both of them while not loosing all are stuff across the road. I look up and see that the light is about to change. I have no choice but to get me and my kids OUT of this intersection. So, I do the best I can. I grab my screaming and kicking 3 year old by her arm and drag her out of the intersection. It is at this point she kicks off on of her shoes and starts to loose it even more! I get her to the side walk and have to pin her down from running back out into the street to get her shoe. Every time I loosen my grip she starts to bolt at the street. I nice man stops and asks if he can help, and I ask him if he could go get her shoe out in the street when the light changes. The light lasts forever… it is one of those lights that just dragggggggs. Finally it changes and the nice man goes and gets her shoe saying he totally understands and has 3 kids himself. The screaming and kicking lasts till I am able to round her up and into the car… then more crying. When we get home I talk to her about how dangerous her behavior was and that it is 100% not acceptable. I leave her in her room since she is BEYOND ready for a nap – then I hear it – MOMMY I PUKED!! MOMMY I PUKED!! Its all over her bed and her carpet… the room smells HORRIBLE. I have now given her a bath and changed her bed. She is back in there and much quieter. I checked her temp and she doesn’t seem to have one, she says her tummy hurts, but I honestly think she may have gotten herself into such a huff about everything that it made her puke – vs. actually being sick. Though, now i have no idea. All I know is that she just had the most epic flip out of her life. I know that if I wasn’t a parent I would have judged harshly how I and my child was behaving. I would have thought that I would handle it better. But in the end, I did what I had to do to keep both my kids safe, and as well behaved as my daughter is most of the time, she is hitting a rough patch (transitions in life, growing, independence etc). She is in SO much trouble for that behavior, esp the fact that it happened in the middle of a massive intersection. It works me up how in danger she put all of us. But I also don’t know how to “punish” her for this sort of thing. mainly I will discuss with her the danger she put us in and that she does not get any rewards for good behavior today b/c that behavior was so bad that there are just no more rewards for the entire day.

I have decided to take her to our street in front of the house to discuss with her the danger that she put us all in. That I understand she was upset – we all get upset. But that you cannot put yourself and others in danger. I will take this opportunity to teach her about cars more.

Also, the poor girl kept puking, so I am pretty sure it had little to do with her tantrum. I am now thinking that the tantrum had a lot more to do with how she was feeling/getting sick. Perhaps she ate something her sensitive tummy could not handle and it started to bother her then? Who knows. (perhaps she is the best manipulator in the world?!?! lol – totally kidding… maybe…)

In order to stay home with the kids, I started watching other kids 2 to 3 days a week. I am SO glad that I made this decision as it has allowed me to experience every day with my kids. For the last 8+ months I have had the same 2 kids, but now they are transitioning into full time daycare and I am introducing new babies to start watching. I am BLOWN away by what a little mommy Ella is. She is AMAZING with the babies.

We were interviewing a new family, and I had explained to Ella that a “new baby was coming to visit”. Ella got very excited, if not a little confused. She started to say over and over, “My brother is broken, we need a new baby!” lol Rest assured, Bastion is not broken!

The new baby started with us 2 weeks ago and Ella is in LOVE! She cries when his mom comes to get him saying “MY BABY! BRING BACK MY BABY!!” I have to keep reminding her that it is n fact not our baby, we just watch him. In the mornings Ella will go to her little kitchen and make the baby coffee and breakfast. She also feeds him this yummy meal. lol She will be a great mommy and wife one day! Bastion was surprisingly jealous of this new baby. Now that he has been here a little longer, Bastion seems to be adjusting well. I think it will be really nice for Bastion to have a little boy around to play with since 90% of all of our friends have girls.

The kids are both growing by leaps and bound right now. Ella has become SO expressive and often reminds me of a 14 year old girl…. all sass! She has very specific ways she wants things done and when they are not done that way, oh man, she gets upset! Bastion has decided that he is going to become a professional climber. He stacks up anything he can find at the edge of our kid gates and tries to climb over. It wont be long before he figures it out… which scares me!

Here is a pic of Ella, putting on her sweet face.

For the 4th of July we went over to our friend Jaime’s house. He has 2 daughters around Ella’s age. Here I am with the kids as they are watching the backyard fireworks display. Ella LOVED it!

Another first that just happened was Ella’s first ice cream cone from the ice cream truck!

I think she was pleased!

Bastion, well, he is just the happiest little kid!