Thank you all so much for the support and positive feedback on yesterday's trials.  I needed the encouragement and definitely found it in your words.  Today wasn't as awful but we are still not back to any sort of "normal" yet.  Molli has just been so incredibly irritable which I've decided is due to three things: being sick, cutting her bottom molars the rest of the way and side effects from her immunizations.  Any one of those things could be cause for her crazy behavior, but the three combined is a sure recipe for an exacerbated bad attitude.  Thankfully Sunday and Monday are Myles' days off so I will have a partner in this madness.

Although she has been using it in a negative way, let me focus positively for a second on my daughters' intensity.  She is a girl who does everything with great passion.  When she plays with something, she plays with it very hard for a short time before focusing her entire attention on the next item of her interest.  When she "talks," she does it very loudly and intentionally.  There is not a babble that comes out of her mouth these days that isn't followed by a look that demands a response.  She definitely knows what she's saying and wants to communicate.  When she engages playfully, she wants undivided attention and will grin and get so excited once she has it.  She's an intense little girl, and usually it's best seen in her play.

Amanda (my best friend who lives in Chicago right now) commented on the phone today that she noticed a difference between our daughters.  When her daughter, Addison (who is 6 months old) gets mad, she grunts a little bit.  But when Molli gets mad, her whole body gets mad.  She tenses up and she clenches her fists until her face is red.  The anger is very sudden and reverberates through her whole body.

Although her intensity is most obviously seen when she is frustrated or angry, I am interested to see how it changes with her as she grows.  I think it can be a really awesome characteristic if we teach her to use it correctly.  I hope that as her parents, Myles and I can guide her to do as Colossians 3:23 encourages, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not men..."

My girl is a passionate little thing.  Tomorrow, when she throws her fits, I will intentionally pray for her to one day turn that passion into a positive and beautiful trait that can be used to glorify the Lord.