Tuesday at the DL

Tuesday...Tuesday...Tuesday...

They say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. They don't say anything about the hotels nearby, though. Prepare yourself, for what you are about to read. It may shock you, it may sadden you. It may change the way you see certain people. There are times in one's life, where you come to a fork in the road, you may choose the dry path, or the wet one...

We woke up Tuesday a little bit later than we wanted to. We were so tired from the day before and I was starting to feel a little bit sick, Amy was already really sick, Kate was getting over being sick, and Sarah was a sweet chipper angel ready to have a great time at Disneyland.

Sarah just amazes me. Every day she seems to get more and more mature. Lately we have been cracking down on whining, and attitudes from the girls, and I mean really cracking down. We have a sort of zero-tolerance policy. It has all but completely vanished from Sarah. Kate is a little more resistant to give it up. Sarah practically jumped out of bed and got up and got ready and was cheerful, and happy and just perfect. I was so pleased with the way she was acting, but I didn't get to enjoy it very much, because while Amy was getting ready, I was trying to get Kate ready. Kate is very unpredictable. Some mornings she will wake up happy as a lark and get dressed and ready with 100% cooperation. Other days, not so much. This Tuesday was a not so much day.

Kate did not want to get up. Not only did she not want to get up, she did not want to wake up, or get dressed, or be happy. Nothing seemed to help. Sarah was up, dressed, hair fixed and everything, and Kate was still zonked out on the bed. So I started to get her dressed while she was sleeping. She wasn't quite sleeping all the way, and she made it very difficult. She kept saying that she wanted to do it herself, but would not do it. She would pull off her shirt, or her pants, or her socks after I would get them on. It was very frustrating. I tried to remain calm and patient, but I couldn't wait all morning for her to wake up. I had already spent 45 minutes and no progress. So I had to practically hold her down to get her pants on. Of course she was screaming the whole time. During this, Sarah was a little bored and asked if she could take some video. I said sure, she could go out on the balcony and shoot some video. So she started recording right away as I am wrestling with Kate to get her dressed. She went outside and tried to make all future viewers of the video sick by waving it all over the place, it was pretty funny, actually. The whole time, in the background, Kate is screaming as if she is being tortured.

Amy asked Sarah to stop video taping because it was getting pretty tense inside. So she set the camera down, but it kept rolling. I finally got Kate into the bathroom and told her to use the potty, while I got ready to get dressed. She sat up on the toilet, fully clothed in rebellion. What happened next absolutely shocked me to no end. I never thought I would witness this from Kate. She just sat there. Then Amy asked her if she was peeing in her pants. I was looking at Kate when Amy said this and her expression changed, like she just got an idea. Amy doesn't really acknowledge that, and I am not blaming her by any means, but I think she started right then. I said "You better not be." That is when I heard the drip, drip, drip. Kate was wearing this brand new outfit from Gymboree and the pants were that kind of material that looks kind of water resistant. It was water resistant. When I saw that she was really peeing, I lifted her off the toilet, and however much pee she can store in her bladder fell out the bottom of her pants and splashed all over the floor, her shoes, my feet, and anything else it could splash on. I was furious. I have never been so angry at one of my children before. I picked her up and said, angrily, "THAT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ACCEPTABLE!" Then I spanked her three times. Then I put her down, pulled all her clothes off and put her in the shower, and turned it on. Amy had just gotten out, so I knew there would be some warm water in there, but I guess a little cold water was in the pipes, because Kate, who was already crying, shrieked that it was cold. I adjusted the temperature and had to go sit in the other room to calm down. I was so mad, I was willing to keep Kate home from Disneyland all day. I wanted to make an impression on her that it was not cool, or funny. I felt so bad for Sarah, though because she was being so perfect.

Amy and I talked it over. Kate was going to have to wait until her clothes were washed and dry, and then she would put them back on, and whatever she missed, too bad. So we got her clothes washed, finished getting ready, and we dropped Amy and Sarah off at the park, then went back to the hotel with Kate. She must not have cared too much about what was going on because her clothes were dry pretty quickly and she took her time putting them on. I didn't push it because I didn't care about missing rides. There were some rides that she did want to go on that we were going to go on that morning, they just got skipped.

I will post the rest of this story later...stay tuned.