A work in progress....

Hello friends! I have some exciting news.. well, exciting for me I guess.. you probably will just snicker. I am working on something and for me, it's a pretty big deal. For all you that know me personally, you know that I am a huge coddler (sp?). Because we waited 4 years to have my son, our daughter was our sole pride and joy for those 4 years and it would be somewhat of an understatement to say that child was spoiled. Now we didn't just give her everything she ever wanted, but since she was the only grandchild and our only child, she was, let's say, "well loved". Ha! I really didn't become aware until recently how much of a coddler I was. I always thought I was the disciplinarian! (Which I really can be, when the situation calls for it) But now that my daughter is 5 and understands manipulation tactics, she has been working hard on Mommy and I am now realizing how much I used to give in to her. Unfortunately for Makayla, she has been hearing "No" a lot more now. 
Here is an example of what happened recently...


So we have a formal living/dining room that we basically turned into a playroom for Makayla. Since she had so many toys that were little and what were considered choking hazards, we made her keep her toys in there since Jackson's "area" was in our den. Well a couple of weeks ago, she apparently had some sort of episode and decided to be a human tornado and dumped all her toys from the toy box all over the floor in BOTH rooms. It seriously looked like some toy hoarder lived here. Well in the past, I would have gone in there and cleaned it up for her, but this time I refused. It was just too big of a mess and she needed to learn a lesson. So we told her that she could not have ANY of her friends over until she cleaned those rooms. Well, needless to say, it took a couple of weeks, but today she finally went in there and started cleaning. Now, I know what you are going to say. Why didn't you make her do it the day she dumped it all out. Well, honestly, she wouldn't have learned anything new. She knows she has to clean up, but if she did it right away, she wouldn't have learned that Mommy and Daddy meant business. She has been begging to have some of her friends come over, but we keep telling her no, not until those rooms are clean. She has now learned that Mommy and Daddy, but especially Mommy, are not just going to give in any more. 
So today, without me saying anything at all, she announced she was going to clean the rooms up and that I would be SO proud of her. Well, she was right. I am one proud Momma right now. She has been in there for a little over an hour, cleaning and organizing! I even gave her a bag and told her she could decide herself which toys she wanted to donate and which ones to keep. Every once in a while, she takes a little break, but then diligently goes back and works some more. 
It probably won't get finished today and more than likely I will have to go in there and help a little. (Yes, it was that bad), but I am so proud of her that she is learning to do things herself! Yeah for progress on both our parts!!