Fists are up ready to fight...

We are constantly battling between the two of us. I love her so much and she has such a sweet spirit and a tender heart but we really but heads on most things. I think what it comes down to is I want it my way and she wants it hers. There's no meeting in the middle between the two of us. Whether we are fighting over her wearing basketball shorts when it's 30° outside or wearing runners when she needs to wear something a little bit nicer, or when she wants to put her hair in a ponytail or not wash it for two more days, or it's a battle of having to clean her room or making me wait after I asked her to do something. There always seems to be something that we are arguing about. 

She loves poppy so much she's always wanting to hold her and help with her. She wants to do a lot herself and it's hard for me to allow her to help me with poppy being so fussy lately.  She is very smart but really struggles with reading. We sit and try to read with her and try to explain ways to make it easier but she just doesn't have the time or patience to listen. I have been catching her in some small lies and try to explain why it's important to tell the truth. Anything from not changing her underwear for several days because she doesn't like the way it feels to telling me that she has read her book for three minutes when all she really did was look at the pictures. Understanding that she is only eight, I need to start to let some of my control issues go. 

Now that she thinks she is loving activity days with so many fun friends. She was also loving playing with our neighbor Claire and with Taylor. Any day that she can't play with Taylor she gets angry at me.  

She has such a beautiful voice and I would really like to try and get her in singing lessons, it's just getting her out of her shell enough so that she's not too shy to sing out. I love that girl so much, we just got to learn how to get along. 

This month I decided to take her on a date to the Cirque du Soleil horse show. It is called Cavallia. We went out for dinner with the Haslam's and then went to the show. It was spectacular! She really loves horses and so do I, so the two of us really enjoyed watching all of the acrobats and the horses do tricks. It was a beautiful show. I'm hoping to be able to put her in a horse camp for a week this summer before we head up to Canada so that she can be a little bit more familiar around horses. I really love how much she loves animals. She loves the real ones but equally she loves the fake ones. Her bed is completely covered and stuffed animals. Every time I ask her to put about half away she can never decide so she ends up sleeping with about 30 to 50 stuffed animals and dolls every night. They completely take over her bed! It's totally ridiculous, but I understand that she is eight and need to allow her to love on her animals while she is still young.