Threenagers part duex

Maggie’s almost 4, and this seems to be the age where she both thinks it’s funny to ignore people, and sometimes is generally spaces caught up in whatever is in front of her. There’s also a warped entitlement fairness doctrine in her world that doesn’t merit going into.

The end result is a child who thinks it’s fun to throw every single thing on the ground and then thinks it’s profoundly not fair that she’s got to pick it up. Combine with the power of a nearly four year old you’ve got tantrums and crying spells that will not stop and she’s not capable of self-calming once she gets into a rage.

Throw in a dash of instability at school (three different teachers a week past two or three weeks,) a desire to only eat four bites of any meal, and being slightly funky due to a cold, being a scheming conniver, and we’ve got what amounts to a powderkeg waiting to blow.

Said powderkeg took a great day yesterday (70’s, not particularly rainy winter day,) and turned it into a prisoner situation where after several hours of this I ended up putting her in her room and telling her to come out when she was in a better mood.

At about 4pm she calmed down. After having been fueled by less than a half of a PB&J sandwich and one bout of a banana since 7am, and no naps, she finally ran out of steam. For the rest of the night we had a human, not a self-harming prisoner.

At about 4pm she joined me in the yard for some fun, well, fun for her, I was running a little fire pit burning off some of the fallen treelimbs. She discovered a beanie baby doll out in the yard which sits on top of the grave of a kitty she used to know. I didn’t stop her from playing with it. The beanie baby kitty had been washed.

She’s invented a story about what happened to Jomo (who died in January,) and seemed to forget that this was her doll.

A day spent crying, kicking, screaming, and otherwise ruining down, she went to bed pretty easily and woke up today pretty tired but otherwise back to somewhat normal.