Are You My Mother?

If there is one lesson that I have learned in the last 48 hours, it's that my kids don't handle change all that well. Even small things can really throw them.

For instance, yesterday I put up the new shower curtain my sister sent for Christmas. I was so excited because I have been internet stalking this puppy for over a year! (Katie, thank you!)

It is glorious. And way more appealing than the $7 plastic one I bought almost four years ago at Target (although it was an Isaac Mizrahi print in orange and pink--pretty fabulous in its prime but now cracking and ripping). As I took the old, sad one down, Chloe FREAKED. She started to cry when I put it in the trash. She said she wanted to keep it in her room. I tried to explain about mildew, but she was having none of it. Of course, Sadie and Piper joined right in with the whining and crying. When I brought out the new towels I got to go with the new look, they howled. It was terrible, but I worked through the commotion. I got the room all cleaned and set up. Then I brought them in and showed it to them. We took turns studying the curtain and each picked our favorite color tier. Chloe admitted that it looked like a dress on the shower. After a fun bubble bath in the "new" bathroom, I won them over. But sheesh, who knew they cared so much about shower curtains?

As you can imagine, we had another tearful scene today when I took down the Christmas decorations. Maybe I was jumping the gun a little bit as most people leave the tree up past New Year's Day, but my little elves had been hard at work. There were more ornaments off the tree than on it, and I feared everything would be lost or broken if I didn't clean up quick (chalk it up to one more year where I failed to teach the children that the decorations are not toys). However, my efforts to preserve our Christmas things were met by an angry mob of little girls. They basically set up a picket line while I boxed everything up and told me they didn't want Christmas to be over. I didn't know kids could be so good at heckling. At one point Piper told me that she "couldn't live in a house without a Christmas tree." I told them that the tree would still be in the house, just in a box downstairs, but they weren't buying. This time I distracted them by forcing them downstairs for another round of their invented Littlest Petshop game. I was able to finish up quickly (thank goodness I only brought out two boxes of decorations this year). All was forgiven and pretty much forgotten. When Chloe tried to bring it up later, I reminded her that now it's time to start planning her birthday.

Tessa's reaction to change yesterday afternoon was the most hilarious. I decided to take full advantage of Carter being off work. I had a hair appointment in the morning (where I got the heavy bangs I had been planning for a while) and then I ran some errands. When I returned to the house, Tessa was napping in her crib. I went about my business until I heard her talking to herself a little while later. I went to get her. I opened the door and called hello (like I usually do). I walked over to pick her up and saw her smiling. But her face crumpled when she saw me above her and she started kicking like crazy. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. I cooed at her and said hello again, but instead of smiling at me like she usually does, she just looked really confused. And then I remembered my hair. She didn't recognize me! It took her a few minutes (of me talking and holding her and telling her it was mommy) to realize it was me. That's never happened to me before! I really didn't think it was THAT big of a change:

Before

After

Different, but hardly unrecognizable. But then again, I'm not a seven-month-old. Of course my little peanut gallery weighed in on the new 'do, too. Piper liked it a lot, but Chloe and Sadie said (repeatedly) they didn't care for it (in a less delicate way, of course). But we all know Piper has the best sense of style, right? So I believe her. Today, thankfully, my hair was no longer an issue. Tessa knew I was her mother and the haters gave it a rest.

So the moral of these stories is that my kids are VERY upset by the littlest changes (like new shower curtains and bangs), but are resilient and get over it quickly. Thank goodness!