"I Don't Like Big Girls!"

I went to pick Jaelin up from preschool today and she already had this look on her face that she wasn't happy. When she saw me, she wanted to be picked up so I did. She then started letting me know how unhappy she was. She threw her bug head piece she made for the day and told me she didn't like it. I sat in the lobby area holding her for about 15 to 20 minutes hoping that she'd calm down. She was quite agitated for some reason. The teachers told me she did great in class although I didn't ask them and I believe them. Something obviously happened in class that bothered her. I tried to soothe her enough to put her shoes on but she resisted. All she wanted was to be held. Given that she's almost 40 pounds and I'm 13 weeks pregnant, this wasn't an easy feat. I gave it my all by picking her up and grabbed her lunch box, shoes, and bug head piece and slowly walked to my minivan. Finally, in the car while she was crying and waling, she told me she didn't like the big girls. She didn't want to play with big girls anymore and she only wanted to play with boys and girls from now on. I didn't understand since she's actually the biggest and tallest girl in class. I figured something just happened that set her off in a really bad mood. Wish I was there to figure out what it was.

Anyways, in the minivan, she didn't want to sit in her car seat. I tried to reason with her that we had to go home to let our dog out into the backyard so he can go pee and poo but that didn't work. I tried to bribe her with ice cream at home but that didn't work. She didn't want to go home. She didn't want to go back to preschool. She didn't want to sit in her car seat. She did mention she wanted to go to Target to buy a toy early on in the drama but I brushed it off and didn't take her request so seriously for some reason. She cried for a few more minutes. As I looked up at the clock, it was already 45 minutes that we were sitting there. I finally asked her if she wanted to go to Target and she complied. She sat in her car seat and I drove there. Target is actually in the same shopping complex as her preschool but I drove anyway. I didn't have it in me to carry her if that's what she wanted.

At Target, she was happy. She happily climbed out of her car seat and held my hand. She walked into the store. As we entered, we both grabbed a sanitizing wipe to wipe down a cart and she asks, "what's that smell?" I told her it was popcorn and asked if she wanted some. She said yes so I sat her in the shopping cart and we headed over to the concession stand. I ordered a bag of popcorn and a strawberry smoothie. She started munching right away and was happy. I asked her if we can go home now and she said yes.

That was quite an unpredictable afternoon. It was also pretty hard but I think I did the right thing. I'm not the type of parent to force my child into her car seat or punish her for having a bad day. I have to admit though, today was one of those difficult parenting days.