Thursday, September 16, 2010

Parenting is hard!!!

Today was a regular school day for Libi.

When I dropped her off all was well!

They have been learning about friendship and Libi likes to talk about being a good friend. They made this book earlier in the week. Miss Caroline asked the kids who their friends were. Libi named every kid in the Panda Pal class (the older kids). Finally Miss Caroline said, "Do you have any friends in our class?" She begrudgingly said, "Sure, Jesslyn." I find this funny because she goes on and on about all the kids in her class-- she seems to like them all.

This is Libi's best friend of the moment.

Her name is Faith and she is a Panda Pal. She is a very sweet little girl who has a sister in Libi's class. I was so proud to see Libi being such a good friend UNTIL.....

I was approached by Madison who informed me that Libi got in trouble today. I asked Miss Caroline what happened and here is the story:

Libi was playing in the sand in the castle play structure. A boy from the panda class wanted to enter the castle to play with her. Libi wasn't excited about sharing so she closed the door in his face and caught his hand in the door.

The boy wasn't hurt-- I think he cried out of the mere shock of having the door shut on him! When Libi was asked why she did it she simply said, "I didn't want to play with him." The school considered the matter over, but I was MAD!!!

We had a very frank conversation in the car and more at home. Libi had to sit in a timeout at her table and think about if she would like to have someone treat her that way. She cried and cried and nearly fell asleep during the time out.

This was super problematic for me because we had a big surprise planned for Libi tonight, but I was worried that if we went we might be rewarding bad behavior.

She cried, we talked, she pouted, and told me over and over how sorry she is. I know it was killing her that she disappointed me-- she is just that kind of kid-- but I wanted her to know that this behavior was totally wrong.

When Ron came home he was informed of the situation and he lectured her-- poor thing! We finally decided that she had suffered enough so we threw her in the car (where she promptly fell asleep) and headed to....

Disneyland!

Or more specifically, California Adventure!

They were doing a special showing of World of Color for Annual Passholders. Since we had never been and Libi was dying to see it, we decided to go for it!

We waited in a long and winding line to get the fastpass, but Libi was a trooper.

Our next order of business was to find a spot for dinner.

We decided on the Chinese restaurant near the pier.

There we waited in more lines to get food.

Libi was just happy to be there (and after her poor afternoon I don't think she would have dared to complain.)

When we told her that we were there to see World of Color so just lit up!

Now it was time to have a little fun before we had to get into the line for WOC.

We all can't wait for Cars Land to open!!!

We headed to Bugs Land so that we could at least do a ride or two.

Our first stop was Heimlich's train-- one of our favorites!

We also tried the bumper bugs for the first time...

I rode alone-- trying to avoid parents with preschoolers. Ron attempted to help Libi steer, which was fun to watch and a real challenge to photograph!

Tonight I was artistic with some of my shots-- this is a particular favorite of the evening.

Our final ride was Flick's Flyers and Libs wasn't too certain about them. She did insist on sitting by herself, but as the ride ascended she had a minor freak out.

We finally got into World of Color. I have to admit that I wasn't super impressed. I think that we need to see it again in a different spot to really give it a fair shot. The water was beautiful and it shot really far into the air. It was difficult to photograph, but this is a collage of my best pics.

Libi didn't like the parts with fire, but Ron clearly did!

It was a great night of family fun, but I could have done without the tough love section of the day.

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