$2.00 Drama

It's amazing the little things that can set off a three year old.  Seriously, if you've never had a three year old, you wouldn't know...I don't think I ever did.  I have come to the conclusion that the age of three is WAY worse than two!  My sister too has three kids.  When they were younger I remember watching her oldest son throw some pretty wild tantrums.  When he was little I was still in college, so I was pretty clueless.  I remember thinking "why doesn't she just give him what he wants" (yes, like I said, clueless).

Mother's Day is just a few days away and (like all holidays-big or small) daycare is having a party, "Muffins with Mom".  As usual, Piper needed $2.00 to contribute for art supplies for a gift and the cost of the breakfast food.  I think they must be learning a little bit about money at daycare-because Piper's little ears perked up when I asked Jeff yesterday if he had any singles that I could take with me to give her teacher.  She just had to know where her two dollars were so we carefully placed them on the kitchen counter before bedtime.

This morning we got up and went through our usual routine.  Piper remembered the money before we got in the van.  Now, I don't think I've ever seen a child more excited about two dollars than she was this morning.  She showed it to everyone one our way into the building this morning, Miss Renee, some random dad, Miss Monica, Miss Theresa, and (finally) Miss Vicky, her teacher.  Miss Vicky took the money and crossed her name off the list.  I spent my usual couple of minutes sitting with Piper and we said our good-byes and I went on to work...

Flash forward nine hours to 5:00 pm...aka, The Pick-Up.  She gave me the best greeting as she ran across the room shrieking "Moooooooommmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy. Of course, when she reached my arms I said "Piiiippppppeeeeerrrrrrrr!!!!!" and picked her up and lifted her over my head.  It's a pretty regular greeting that I look forward to-especially after a very long Monday.  The long awaited greeting was immediately followed by "where's my two dollars".  Apparently, she had absolutely no recollection of giving the money to Miss Vicky.  Here's the rest of the conversation:

Piper: "can I have my two dollars?"

Me: "no, remember you gave it to Miss Vicky"

Piper: "is it in your pocket"

Me: "no, it's not in my pocket"

Piper: "is it in the van"

Me: "no, Miss Vicky  has it"

Piper: "is it in my cubby"

Me: "no honey, we gave it to Miss Vicky this morning for the Mother's Day party"

Piper, now screaming incoherently, stomping and flailing around keeps yelling something about the two dollars.  Now, I totally could have fished the five dollar bill out of my pocket and given it to her to get her out to the car...but, I didn't.  Instead, desperately trying to keep my cool, I explained to her once again that Miss Vicky had the money for the party and that it was time to go pick up Sully and Finley.  She nearly refused to leave, until of course, I told her she could stay there and daddy could come back to get her and walked out of her classroom.  It wasn't exactly pretty, but she made her way to the van...she can't pass up a trip to the baby room.

I don't always succeed with staying strong and not giving in, but today I did.  It was one small win against my three year old in a sea of losses, but I'll take what I can get!