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September 28, 2009

Tessalitapitabread turns 4...watch out world.






, originally uploaded by Krystal OBrien.


Saturday was Tessie's 4th birthday. I think this was the first year she actually anticipated her birthday. We talked about it a lot beforehand and she was so totally stoked to see September 26 finally arrive. I was slathering white canned icing on her cake so that she could decorate it with sprinkles when she walked into the kitchen with her cute little morning face and just smiled at me.



I hugged her and wished her happy birthday and she said "I don't even feel any different!". Then I told her she could put the sprinkles on her cake and she just dumped the entire tin of sprinkles in one spot. She said "this is where I want the dinosaur to go!". I said "um...like one of your toy dinosaurs? maybe we can draw one??" She said "no! the cake one like last year". Uhhh...well...Gayleypoo is in Florida now so where the hell will we get a cake dinosaur? I said "OH DON'T WORRY, Daddy will draw any dinosaur you want on your cake!" She was not amused but she decided that a pterodactyl would suffice. Cake problem solved. Of course there were those who thought it was a bat, but Tess was fine, so we were fine.



The party was very good....the friends were good...the presents were way good. Tess...not so good. I am a huge Tess fan. I think she's smart and funny and very cheeky but what do you do when your child turns into a wretched spoiled BRAT? I think she might have just gotten overwhelmed by being the center of attention or something but she was ungrateful, rude and pretty much awful about her gifts. This carried over into Sunday where she acted like a manic freak. One minute she loved everything and everything was great and the next, she was complaining that she didn't really love anything we've done for her or given her.



I thought about it a lot yesterday. I've always tried really hard to not own my child's bad behavior, just to try and correct it. But really, is it possible to chalk rudeness up to "well she was just overwhelmed" or "she's only 4". No, I don't think it's OK to do that. Tess has been fortunate enough to not have me unleash on her the way I did with her older siblings. I was a single mom with something to prove. I wanted my kids to be a good reflection of me and I wanted them to not be the kids that other people dread seeing so I was probably harder on them than they deserved. This is the day where Tess starts getting those lessons as well. I think she's a doll, she's wonderful and caring and all things good, but there's the potential for badness and I'm gonna make like barney fife and nip it!nip it! nip it!

Posted by krystal at September 28, 2009 9:20 AM

Comments

Eh, the face she gave me when she opened my present was really nothing...it was even almost a smile. LOL.

Posted by: Amy at September 28, 2009 6:25 PM

It's my fault. Had I been there with a dino cake, she might have been better. I'll make it up to her next year.

Posted by: gayle at September 29, 2009 7:27 AM