...but the day ended triumphantly!

After a particularly challenging week of Motherhood, I decided to put my foot down. In fact, I think I put both feet down, followed by both hands and then my ass. I'd had enough.

I had quite the revelation yesterday morning when I realized that not only had I fought with my two year old for most of the previous day... but then I'd spent half the night fighting her again to go to bed, which she finally did - after midnight. A few short hours later she was waking me up violently by pulling my hair and attempting to poke my eyes out. I wanted to cry. I was exhausted and I had a feeling that the start to our day would most likely outline how the rest of it would go.

NO MORE.

After a series of self-righteous texts to my Mother, followed by a brief phone call to reiterate the whole mess, I came up with a plan. Structure. Not, as my husband would put it, militant - just... organized... orderly? I wasn't sure yet, but I knew something was brewing in my brain. I would lay down an outline and fill in the blanks as I went along. It would come to me, I knew it. One thing was for certain. I would be having several heart-to-hearts with my children about all of the daily things that go on in this house and I would be the only one determining when and how they would be done from now on. Well, okay, and my husband could help...

I won't bore you with the details but let's just say a few things happened:
1. All of my children were in the tub by 8, dressed and combed by 8:30 and then were told repeatedly that they had 30 minutes to watch t.v. or read a book - but that was it. 9pm is the new bedtime in this household.
2. At 8:58 I started to get nervous.
3. At 8:59 I started thinking my plan was going to fail miserably.
4. At 9:00 I announced "Bedtime!" and Riley quietly jumped into bed (his sister was already fast asleep in his walk-in closet - another story for another day - and YES, Mom. The door IS open!) and he immediately closed his eyes.
5. Olivia went quietly into her crib, which she was quick to point out was for babies and she's a big girl. Had a little "revelation" of her own and proceeded to put up a semi-quiet fight for about 15 minutes. Then fell asleep. Slept through the night. AND DIDN'T WAKE UP UNTIL 9AM!
6. My husband and I, literally standing in the middle of the living room and staring at each other, took in the IMMENSE lack of noise in the house. I swear to God I even heard the heat blowing through the vents for the very first time in our 2 years of living here! We both began uncontrollably giggling and like right out of a movie exclaimed at the exact same time "This is weird."

A few other things came about, like the fact that my kindergartener picked out his own clothes (matching!) and even put them on before he left his room this morning (like I asked!). He went immediately to the kitchen table for his breakfast instead of begging for it in front of the t.v. My two year old began her usual "Now!" this and "STOP!" that and when I calmly said "Would you like to go back to your crib?" she said in a sweet little tone "Sorry, Mommy" and then hugged me and grinned.

You can judge us for this, it's okay. We honestly never knew what we were missing. We were trying so hard to make our children happy and yet, here we were - having a total and complete "AH HA!" moment. Kids want structure. They don't love it, but I swear to you they are much happier kids for it.

So, dear people... the tally for today? Kids: 1. Mom: 1.