Mismatched Mayhem

I took my child to school today in her jammies,

and I'm not sorry one bit.

Our darling first born woke up in a foul mood and -- as is her custom when cranky -- began doling out ultimatums about being served breakfast and not being made to go to school before the night's drool was even washed from her face. I sent her back to her room to start her day over, which she feebly attempted, but she still wouldn't get dressed. She turned downright belligerent (if I didn't know better I would have sworn she was hung over), and it was clear she thought that I wouldn't take her to school in her jammies. She discovered how wrong a five-year-old in mismatched jammies can be.

We've been down this road a lot lately with our little Anna Banana.

I'm often telling her 3 -15 times to get dressed, brush her teeth, tell the pee pees to get their water wings on and jump in the pool, etc. Recently, after an under-productive morning of trying to get her Woody doll to do his ballet steps en pointe, she ran out of time to brush her teeth before we had to leave for school. The natural consequence of that was that she was not allowed to eat any sugar that day -- not so much as an organic granola bar with carob chips: "Kids who do not brush their teeth certainly can't put sugar in their mouths," I chirped in my best Mary Poppins voice. I noticed that today, though she couldn't be bothered to do anything else, she inexplicably managed to get her teeth brushed.

Just like her mommy, she has to learn the hard way.

Somehow, she seemed genuinely shocked that, when it was time to leave for school, I quietly handed over her shoes and socks and walked her to the car in her bare feet. As she gradually came to terms with her mounting social anxiety about facing her classmates armed with nothing but a princess kitten pajama top and plaid pajama bottoms, she got so mad she told me she was fastening the velcro on her shoes as tight as she possibly could to punish me. I can tell you that withholding that much laughter for that long was punishment enough for a mommy.