Saturday, July 7, 2007

dressing up and dressing down

today we went shopping with granny to find bridal party dresses. i dreaded it because i hate shopping, especially dress shopping, especially in the heat with a potentially temperamental 5 year old on steroids. i was expecting the worst.

fortunately, i was pleasantly surprised. allison has made it easy on us by doing the make a match plan at david's bridal. her two colors only come in about 4 styles of dresses. i had already scoped them out online, so i pretty much knew which one i wanted. all i had to do was try it on and make certain.

although she started the excursion being mopey, pooka perked up once we actually got to the dress store. she was patient and helpful while i tried on my pieces for size, and was nearly giddy while we picked out and then tried on her dresses. of course, she absolutely LOVED every single one of them, but we finally narrowed it down. we even took a pic and sent it to aunt alli for confirmation. camera phones rock! then i fed brigitte while granny looked for her dress. and pooka was even well-behaved for that.

after dresses we went to the mall briefly to look for bridal party jewelry and then back to dad's house to visit, since we haven't seen him in about 2 weeks. for a short while pooka was fine, but then got crankier as she got more tired and begged to leave. all she had to do was pick up the mess she made upstairs and we could go. after surviving the difficult shopping trip, this simple task is what made her break down. she ended up refusing and descended into a tantrum when she was punished for her defiance. when we finally got home, she was sent to her room for the rest of the evening. she actually threw ANOTHER tantrum and got more punishment. once she settled in her room, she promptly fell into a deep sleep.

kisu and i believe her numerous tantrums this past week stem largely from lack of sleep. her counts were fine at clinic, but she still has dark circles under her eyes. she has been going to bed at 9 or 930, falling asleep later than that, and still waking up at 630 to have breakfast with me. she refuses to nap, so she is just not getting the amount of sleep her body needs.