Morning moods

When I woke up this morning just before 7, Akila was already up and playing with her dolls. She was in a good mood and said she woke up at 6:15, which is fine. She wanted to help me wake up the kids. I said no, as they usually don't like her waking them up, even if it is not in the middle of the night. I woke them up, she stood in their doorways. Let me repeat, she was in a good mood, and being kind to them.

But they were all just getting up and not in a chatty mood and were not overly nice to Akila. They weren't mean either, they just weren't going out of their way to be nice, and were maybe a tad rude. Well this set off the little princess, and she turned from princess into the wicked witch. She was horrible the rest of the morning, hitting, swearing and being very mean. It was out of control.

Michael and I have learned to read her moods and when she is in a good mood like she was initially, we will play into it and she will often keep it going for quite awhile. Obviously, our children do not have the sophistication to do this, or should I say, are not master manipulators yet like we are. I was trying to talk to the other three about this tonight. Without placing blame on them for her foul mood this morning, I was trying to talk about her initial good mood and asking if any of them had any ideas how we could have helped to keep her in a good mood.

It was an interesting conversation, I think Imani and Hezekiah understood it a little bit. They are actually pretty good at doing this sometimes, but I know it is hard to do when first waking up- I am not a morning person and I struggle every morning to be chipper with my kids, and to not have a short fuse with any of them, especially Akila. Although you would not have known it this morning the way I was yelling at her.