Fireflies and Lost Opportunities

Yesterday I babysat for my friend Heather's daughter, Isabella. Isabella is an adorable pixie-like four-year-old who laughs easily and hard - and spent the majority of the afternoon and evening pouting and throwing temper tantrums, even though Mike (the boyfriend) and I took her first to McDonalds and then to the zoo.

"I don't WANT to wait in line, boo hoo hoo."
"I want to crawl behind the line that keeps the animals in their cage! Booo hooo hooo! WAAAAAH!"
"The sea lion swam away! I can't see it! WAAAAH!"
"I WANT TO GO AGAIN!"
Eventually, when she threw a temper tantrum because she couldn't ride the merry-go-round again (those rides are EXPENSIVE. She was free for the merry-go-round, but I had to go with her, and that was two dollars. Ugh. I spent fifty dollars at the stupid zoo), Mike, sick of it, swung her up on his shoulder and we marched out and he stuffed her into the car. I think we hadn't done it before because WE wanted to see more, and at that price, we were going to stay, but the zoo was closing then, anyway.

Then, at my house:
"I want the dog on her leash!"
"I want to go in the refrigerator!" (I caught that child in the refrigerator SIX times and I have NO idea what she got out of it. Pisses me off. There's not even anything good in the fridge. Except pickles.)


Then, we were outside catching fireflies. Mike had left about two hours before, completely worn out by the child, who he'd spent all day running after in the zoo. Please note, by this time, I hadn't ANY patience left. None. It was ALL gone.

In any case, she managed to catch one, and we put it in a jar for her to take home with her. Then, we caught one more each and put those in the jar. I told her it was the last time we were going to catch them and we went outside for a few more.

Every time she missed a firefly (it flew to high or whatever), Isabella would start to cry and stomp her feet because it got away. Her tantrums made her completely miss the 3-10 fireflies that were still around her.

Made me wonder: how often am I so upset by not getting something that I want that I miss
something else?