Miss N

Miss N (4.5) is in a stage that is driving me crazy.

She's acting like a baby a lot, and then like a sassy teenager sometimes. I am truly having my patience tested. I am failing that test sometimes. If N doesn't get her way, she starts to howl. When you tell her that if she doesn't stop howling that she won't get X, Y, or Z, she immediately stops howling and says, "I've stopped crying, now can I have X?"

NO! GOOD GRIEF! NO! Don't cry to try and get your way. Geez. It's all manipulation. Sometimes she can do really sweet things... Like tonight when she found a dandelion and gave it to K (27 months) to blow because she knows how much K loves them. K calls them candylions... I LOVE it when K calls them candylions and I love that N thought of her sister and gave her the dandelion. It gives me hope.

Anyway, I've heard that 4 is a hard year... and then right as you're ready to send them off to live at Grandma's, they turn almost 5 and become the sweetest kids... Please tell me this is true.

It's so funny because I don't think K and T will ever be as hard as N has been... N's my first. She's the one that teaches me what kids of a certain age are like. By default she's always hardest because I'm always learning with and from her.