Rhiannon was in a very contrary mood this morning; it seemed like she just wanted to be slightly argumentative about everything. At some point I raised my voice and told her to stop fighting during one of her quips back at Violet. In my mind I followed up with the thought of, “can’t you just accept it, and move on?” And then, I realized that, while I am greatly frustrated by Rhiannon’s desire to argue, counter-point, and be an overall smart-ass at times, I’m honestly quite proud of it; if applied right, those are strengths. I don’t want my daughter to simply accept things blindly; I want her to stand and face things, judge whether the whatever is something she stands for or can stand with. I just need to figure out how to teach her when it’s time to keep her mouth shut.