Jewel is visiting

Brad and I took the kids to the coffee shop this morning. It's Loreli's first outing since our SunRose Cafe lunch last week. No issues. Stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up all the ingredients for chicken stew. No issues.

This afternoon we drove to south Denver, about an hour away, to pick up a stand up paddle board that Brad found on craigslist for me. Raining, raining, raining all day. Daniel had his umbrella and we're guessing Loreli's is in one of the bags we packed away when we emptied her room. She went to grab mine. I said, "You are supposed to ask for permission." which is part of the FIP that we are on. I said we would just put it in the car for when we got to the meeting place. For the next 5 minutes she bugged me incessantly about the umbrella, "Mom, mom, can I have the umbrella?" I told her no several times as I ran around the house as moms do before we leave to go somewhere. Windows and doors locked, purse, phone, bluetooth, etc. As we were walking out the door she tried to pull the umbrella out of my hand and I said sharply, "Loreli! You are being pushy! Stop it! Get in the car and you can have it when we get there!"

Everyone climbed in the van and I could feel the simmer behind me. Ugh.

I gave everyone a minute, got settled and seatbelted and looked back at Daniel and then Loreli. "How are you guys?" Daniel says, "Good!" and Loreli says, "Okay." I raised my eyebrows at her and said, "You're okay?"

"Yeah." She actually looked okay.

"OMG! Jewel! Good job!" and she grinned at me.

When we arrived at the parking lot of REI, where we were meeting this guy, she and Daniel hopped out and started playing with their umbrellas in the grass. I looked over to check on them in between talking to the guy. I saw the umbrella she was using was bent, when it hadn't been before. The rain was really coming down. I took the umbrella and told her to go get in the car. She did, without complaint or tears or any anger at all. Shocking.

About 20 minutes later we were headed home in Denver traffic. It took us an hour and a half to get home. No issues.

Playing with Daniel--no issues.

Taking a shower--no issues.

Doing her hair--no issues.

Not only no issues but fun to be around!

So, is it the honeymoon period or are we over the hump?