The Princess of Everything

My little girl is, as Mr. Peevie is wont to say, the complete package. She is beautiful, very smart, empathetic, talented at singing and dancing, and athletic. She is also as stubborn as they come, and once she makes her mind up about something, just give it up. You won't change it.

When M. Peevie was a tiny infant, I wanted to both nurse her and give her bottles, as I did with both of her brothers. Well, she would have none of it. She decided from the moment she latched on to The Real Thing that anything less would be unacceptable. No matter who tried to give her a bottle, and no matter what was in the bottle--different brands of formula, breast milk, juice, water, vodka--she refused to take it. She would scream and cry until her face was purple and her eyes were puffy slits.

So, as you can imagine, it was difficult to leave her with a babysitter. Fortunately, I was working from home at the time, and also fortunately, my neighbor was caring for her a couple of days a week. I would walk up the block, nurse her, and walk back home to work.

I'm hopeful that this personality trait will translate to tenacity when she's an adult, rather than something on the pathology end of the personality scale.