No, **I** wanna to do it!

Natalie is in the "I wanna do it" stage. Big time. Which can make mornings rather challenging...

The other morning I was trying to get her ready to get out the door without us being all too late. I made the mistake of taking her jammie-pants off and putting her skirt on, before her I'm-not-all-awake-I'm-watching-TV self noticed it. Needles to say, a major meltdown was on it's way.

In an attempt to save the situation, I put her jammie pants on over her skirt so she could take them off all by herself. And of course, that was not acceptable. So she took the jammie pants off, took the skirt off, put the jammie pants on, then took them off and put the skirt on. So she could do it all by herself.

Then we went on to the jammie top. Learning from my earlier mistake, I let her take it off all by herself. She got her arms out of the sleeves, but the shirt got stuck on her head. Really stuck. After watching her stuggle for a while, I asked if she wanted help, and she said yes. So I took the shirt off. Big mistake. "No, I wanna do it!" Meltdown number seven hundred and fifty five for that morning was rolling in.

Then it happened. I just couldn't help it. I started to laugh. Because the whole situation was just too absurd, too silly. And you know what? Natalie couldn't help it, she started to laugh too. While she was still whimpering a little, trying very hard to pretend to be mad and sad, she couldn't keep the smile from her face. We laughed thru the rest of the morning routine and made it out the door at a half way decent time.

Sometimes, I guess laughter really is the best medicine.