Am I doing this right?

(Note: This was done on March 3rd but we have been having Internet troubles - thank you Comcast for at least being consistently crappy!)

Today is March 3rd.

It's day that I found out I was pregnant 4 years ago.  I can't believe that it's been 4 years already, but of course I'm going to say that every year.

I peed on a stick and saw two pink lines and everything changed.

And now 4 years later I'm wondering....Am I doing this right?

It's hard to know what's right and wrong.  What's too much discipline and what's not enough.  I'm always second guessing myself.  Most of the time Ivy is good but there are some very trying times as well.  There are some days when I want to just hand her off to someone else and run.

Wednesday morning I went about my normal routine.  I woke Ivy up at 7 and tried to get her ready for school....she would have none of it.  She was G-R-U-M-P-Y!  She is my child after all so getting up in the morning always proves to be a challenge.  I was trying to get her dressed and she decided that the shirt I picked out wasn't what she wanted.  I offered to let her pick out a shirt and she wouldn't.  After 5 minutes of pulling out every shirt she owns and asking her if she wanted to wear it, I gave up.  The answer was always "No" and when I said she had to pick something she yelled at me...."NO I DON'T!"  (Seriously, at 3 - I have a feeling the teenage years are going to be very long.)  That was it!  I lost my cool - I snatched her up ripped off the pj top she was wearing and put on the top I had originally picked out for her over her head.  Then a struggle to get her arms in ensued. It was not pretty and it was not fun.  Then she refused to eat.  So for the next 20 minutes she sat at the top of the stairs screaming and crying and telling me that she didn't like me anymore and I made her sad.  Now what do I do?  Do I spank her?  Put her in timeout?  Take away toys?

After I finished getting myself ready I went to her and asked her if she could explain why she was acting this way.  She crossed her arms and looked away.  I asked her to answer me and she spit.  You can imagine what I did...pulled down the pants and spanked her, which resulted in more screaming.  I then strapped her in the car, drove to Mom's, gave her the run down of - no breakfast, teeth not brushed, hair not brushed, and good luck.  I was out of there.

Then there was this morning - complete angel!  Her clothes were "So Cute!", her bagel was "Yummy!" and her milk was "So good!"

Hopefully she'll turn out unscathed from the trauma of being 3 years old.....and hopefully I won't lose my mind before she turns 18.