As you have already figured out, Miss 3 can be a real handful. She is funny and wild and stubbornly persistent, and screams like a banshee for everything she wants.
A few days ago, she was in the throws of yet another tantrum and I was suddenly and completely really, really done with her. I hollered at her, swatted her, and sent her into her room for a time out.
I ran into my room and gave myself a time out. (It involved prayer…. I was seriously fed up.)
When I went back into her room to get her after a few minutes, I saw that she had stripped herself naked and was still having her fit.
“If you’re naked, you need to be sitting on the potty!” I yelled irrationally. Then I picked her up and tossed her into the bathroom.
In the middle of this, a tiny voice said in my head, “Be nice to her. She’ll calm down.”
I knelt down in front of her and said, “Are you mad at mommy?”
She assured me that yes, she was most definitely mad at mommy.
I apologized and we hugged. Then she held up her tiny little fingers and did this: 
“I love you,” she smiled.
“Who taught you that?” I asked, surprised.
“Your mommy taught me this,” she said.
I realized that even though my mom was only here visiting for a short time, she had left something behind for me. I felt like she was right beside me when I needed her.
What an amazing answer to a short, fervent, panicked prayer.
Addendum: After writing this, I turned around to see that Miss 3 had colored all over herself and the entire television screen with gray marker. . . . .
