The days are long ....

... But the years are short.

That is how the saying goes.

Troy constantly quotes the first half to me.

With each battle of the wills with Lydia he looks at me and says, "The days are long".

The other day we ate lunch in Dallas after Phoebe's post-op appointment.  Lydia was embarrassingly rude to the waitress.  She set down the lemonade and Lydie yelled, "NO! I no want that lemonade!"  I asked her to say sorry for being rude. She refused.  The waitress walked away.  I took her to the restroom to talk about it and do the whole "You will choose discipline if you don't say you are sorry" routine. I returned to the table and said to Troy, "Prior to Lydia I was the parent that watched other people with kids like Lydia and slowly and disapprovingly shook my head at their misfortune and their cruddy parenting skills."

See.  That is what I get for judging.   This is payback.  Is it a coincidence that the two strongest willed children in the house carry Troy's DNA?  no.  I think not. 

Troy told me that he thinks it is weird (and not good weird) that after all these kids we now have one who refuses to let us do anything for her. If we do it, we pay.  She has an attitude that screams,  'I never asked for parents'. We literally take 20 minutes to load the truck and leave because we let her "Do it me self" and climb in on her own.  If you hand her her toothbrush, she will put it back in the drawer to take it out herself. When she would not hold my hand to cross a parking lot Troy said, "That Spirited Child book says to be sure to affirm her when she is being good ... which shouldn't be that hard since it is almost never."

The odd thing is ... anytime someone else takes care of her they tell us how awesome she is.  They say she listens and cooperates.  Listens. Cooperates.  Two words we would never ever use to describe our last born.  We love her.  And... We no longer know anything at all about raising children.

... But the years are short.

:)