just like that, she edited me out.

spidergirl has been a little moody lately, to put it mildly. she's always been ornery and full of energy, but super sweet and very easy going. lately? she's a little spitfire. it's like there's a full-moon every night. sheesh.

i'm guessing some of it may have to do with the anesthesia from her procedure last week and a new medicine she's on.

anywho. i digress.

this last semester at school, her teacher has steered clear of the nightly math worksheet as homework and has been pushing the kids to exercise their creative writing skills by assigning them a topic to write about. at first they were required to write 6-8 sentences, but now they are up to 10.

mind you, she gets her assignment on Monday mornings and it's not due until the following Monday, giving her ample time to dream up a little story and get it scribbled down onto paper. buuuuuuut, this girl loathes anything with the word "work" in it. hates it. she'd rather watch another episode of Spongebob for the 128th time.

she's written cute little stories like...
Topic: Losing something
"Once a long time ago there was a dog named Bobby. Bobby lost his vere taste bone. He was worried. Bobby wint lokeing for his bone and finds his girlfend Sadie. Sadie helps Bobby find it. They find his taste bone!"

and
Topic: A lost animal
"One day I was playing kickball in the park. I asckidintele kicked the ball into the woods. When I went to go git it, I heard a noise. I tried to find what it was. I saw a bunny. Then I remembrd Shane lost his bunny. So I gave the bunny to Shane. He was so happy."

and
Topic: Vacation
"We wint to Alligator Adventure. We saw the biggest alligator. He is the largest gator in captivity. I saw a squirrl-monkey. The monkey was so cute. He jumped around. We saw them feed the gators. The gators really like chicken."

and
Topic: Your family
"My name is Emma Willis. I have four people in my family. We enjoy playing xbox kinect. Our favorite game is disney adventures. I like to paint with my sister. Her favorite color is green. My dad and I like to wrestle. I win, when I use the claw. My mommy likes to do crafts. We made a pinata together. I love my family." (awwwwwww)

but this past weekend, doug was out of town and before leaving he gave spidergirl a little incentive to encourage her to get her homework done before he got back home. nice move, sir. he didn't want to deal with her weekly homework meltdown and left me to do the dirty work. LOL. her incentive in the form of spending money for our Disney trip.

so, sunday morning while i was cleaning up my studio, i asked spidergirl to sit at my desk and start her story. Topic: Family Vacation (one you've taken or are hoping to take). that's easy...we're currently counting down the days to Disney!

but, as usual, there was nothing easy about convincing her to get her homework done. there's always something wrong.

"my clothes are itchy."
"i *neeeeed* to sharpen my pencil."
"how do you spell 'disney'?"
"that's too many sentences. it *says* 8-10. not 11."
"ashlyn! be quiet!"

putting my creative mommy hat on, i thought, hmmm. let's just talk about vacation. while we were talking, Ashlyn typed up everything emma said, changed the font to a large, readable font size, and printed it out.

"here's your story emma--straight from your mouth."

now all she had to do was find a place to sit, grab a sharp pencil, and start copying her story down.

instead, she ran upstairs in a huff, threw her paper across the room, snapped her pencil in half and turned on a cartoon.

moooooooooody. so, i just let her be.

but then, doug called saying he'd be home in 30 minutes. she panicked because she didn't have her homework done and proceeded to have a meltdown because she knew that meant no extra Disney money. so i calmly told her it was time for a nap. she's in between that stage of needing a nap every day and not needing one at all.

i tried, unsuccessfully, to lay beside her just to get her to calm down, even telling her i didn't care if she fell asleep she just needed a few minutes to rest.

after her treating the bed more like a trampoline and nearly hyperventilating between sobs, i bargained with her saying "fine, if you won't take a nap, then the only thing you can do is get your writing assignment done."

neither choice was desirable, but she stormed out of the room deciding it was better to buckle down and write her story than spend another second resting.

i stayed upstairs, while she plopped herself down at the kitchen table giving her sister a sob story about how mean i am. mind you....all of this took place on Mother's Day. such a glamorous life i lead. ha.

so while she's talking to ashlyn i overhear her saying......"i'm editing mommy out of my story because she's mean. so i'm editing her out."

oh my goodness, i couldn't contain the laughter.

and here's the story....with me edited out.
"This summer my family is taking a vacation to Florida. While we are there we are going to Walt Disney World! I can't wait. We are leaving in XX days! I can't wait to ride the Tower of Terror. My daddy bought me a pluto hat to wear on my trip. I'm going on an airplane. My dad and sister will take a car. It will only take me 2 hours to get there! It will take my sister and dad about 16 hours! I also can't wait to see Ariel! I've never been to Disney before."

oh, kids. good thing they're adorable even when they're moody.