Irreverent Eloquence

       I've underestimated my 4 year old. If you know me well enough, you know she is the child that is capable of pushing all my buttons.        I feel like I constantly have a weary eye on her, waiting for her next move, like a chess opponent in a game that I do not quite understand all the rules. She is sweet but a diva, her attitude and spark spawned from nature and not nurture for certain, her raising and rules having not been different from her very dissimilar older sister's.         Our biggest hurdle since she was barely nine months old has been her eating habits. Noting early on her preferences and picky eating, we as parents and others as caregivers attempted to train and retrain her palate. It has been an epic fail since the very beginning. We've discussed it with pediatricians and read up on strategies to manage her behaviors at the dinner table. A few weeks back it came to a head with an impressive display on all our parts.         How shall I set th

       Some days my mommy-hood is a mixture of being forgetful and frustrated, figuring out the problem and then being forgiven. I had that day this week. I had a fitful night of sleep and woke with a headache and a wish to go right back to bed. The girls needed breakfast, and with fall in full swing, my first grader needed to get nagged into her shoes, jacket and backpack. After those few tasks, and seeing her onto the bus on time, I was free to meld into the couch for a few minutes and eat my own breakfast of tylenol and cold cereal.       I was lulled for an hour into a calm and peaceful state as my other two homebound little girls were quietly watching cartoons in the lower level. My 4 year old dresses herself every morning and since we've set up new guidelines for the closet that has been going really well. I hadn't really given any thought to changing my 2 year old out of her pajamas as it wasn't that late and they were playing so nicely. So I settled in for a reru