So you know those blogs that seem to paint this perfect
little life with perfect little kids and a mom who can barely function because she just adores her children so much??? Well. This isn't one of them. Don't get me wrong I love my life and my children but let's be real; some days are not so fun.
The month of December was rough. Interesting that the one month that you can hold the whole "Santa's watching" bit over their head is the month that all heck breaks loose. {Editors note: Skip forward a month and things are
SOOOOO much
better. Did a little self evaluation, a LOT of one on one chats with the kiddos, a LOT of praying and a little restructuring of our lives and things are back in a good place.}
Anyhoo.... Most of the grief around here was largely impart to Miss
Caymbree and her clothing issues. Yes I said
Caymbree. You may recall that Hope has
similar issues. Take hers and times them by ten and you MIGHT reach
Caymbree's level of issues. So I'm documenting them here for a number of reasons. 1) Hopefully someday (a long long time from now) I will be able to look back and laugh. 2) Someday when
Caymbree has children of her own and calls me with her struggles I can refer her to here 3) theraputic writing 4)to gain your sympathy and understanding 5) and to be real with you and with myself and my posterity. So there you have it. If I have bored you to tears, please feel free to stop reading here. If your interested or can relate...let's go for it.
So about four months ago (completely out of the blue)
Caymbree started struggling with her clothes. First it was her pajamas. They bugged her. Her birthday suit was much less restricting and
preferable. Okay. Whatever floats your boat. Then it became her socks. And she started to refuse them. A few blisters later proved that she HAD to wear them but it was a major ordeal. She would put them on, fold them down, pull them up, fold them down, take them off, try it all over again shed a few tears and then about 10-15 minutes later (if we were lucky) we might be able to put on shoes. It rapidly moved on to her undies. Yep. The undies became an issue. A BIG issue. I would put them on her. She would take them off. I would put them back on. Eventually she would get them back off. It all came to a head when while walking through the movie theatre a sweet little mother tapped me on my shoulder to point out my 3 year old daughter walking beside me with her pants around her ankle and a
undie free bum hanging out. Yep. Naked bum at the theatre. Your laughing right? Ya. I'm not there yet. I'm pretty sure I had steam coming out of my ears.
So by this point
Caymbree/clothes/and mom are a lethal combination. I started praying
desperately for patience and understanding. I'm thinking it is due to mostly
stubbornness and maybe a little discomfort. It wasn't until
Hallee's birthday party that I realized how severe the issue really was.
The morning of
Hallee's party
Caymbree was out of her mind excited about going to Classic Skating. She loves that place and could not stop talking about it. About four hours before the party I got her in the tub and explained that Classic Skating had called and said that you absolutely HAD to wear underwear or they wouldn't let you in. (Hey I was desperate). The
interaction went like this...
Me: "SO
Caymbree, Classic Skating just called and said that you HAVE to wear underwear or they will not let you in."
Caymbree: {Face turns white and expressionless}.
Me: "I'll let you pick out any underwear that you want but you have to put some on
ok?"
Caymbree: {eyes turn downward}. "Mom? Are you going to classic skating? {YEP} "Is dad?" {YEP}. {Fighting back tears} "I'll just stay here."
Me: "What? You don't want to miss out on all the fun."
Caymbree: {In a slow and
pitiful voice } "Just leave me your cell number and I'll be fine." {Ok. Kind of funny but oh so sad.}
My heart broke. She was serious. If going to Classic Skating meant putting on underwear then she would rather stay home. Holy Smokes batman!! We have a problem!
Long story short, two hours and a LOT of tears later she still did not have underwear on but she settled for a pair of leggings on under her
levi's. Can you think of
anything more uncomfortable?? But whatever works.
I finally got the point where I could not fight the battle anymore and basically just gave up for a while. Nothing ruins a day more than starting every morning with World War 3. SO I let her pick out her outfits and we compromised with leggings under
Levi's. This means an entire closet of
cute outfits are currently sitting unused. But it was worth it!
SO now here we are with a progress report. Clothes are still an issue but we are working through them. Interestingly enough the more I backed off the less tense she became. We went to the store and picked out socks together and turned the socks into a NON-ISSUE. Whew!!! Wish it were that easy with the rest of it. But we are working on it. We are currently in the market for a pair of
Levi's or a
levi skirt that she will pick out and love.
SO there you have it. The whole ugly truth of the battles we fight at the Hodges home. Any advice, counseling or drugs gladly excepted!! Hopefully it won't be too long before I can look back at this whole experience and laugh. Hopefully it is SOON. Like tomorrow would be great!
Hope did a ballet number to "The way you look tonight." She looked beautiful and absolutely LOVED her costume. 
A few weeks ago while I was watching one of their practices Hope busted out a cartwheel right in the middle of their ballet number. At that point I was thinking dancing may have been the wrong choice for Hope and tumbling might be more of her thing. However, she pulled through and did a great job at her performance. 
{ Hope and her friend Elle}
{Proud Parents}
