To say that Harper and I have struggled the last two or so weeks is a vast understatement. Every day she becomes more and more independent and strong willed and with that has come this notion that she needs to challenge anything and everything I try to do and say where she is concerned. Case-in-point, I tried to get her dress on her before church on Easter Sunday and she refused to put it on. The minute I mentioned her pretty dress she started screaming at me. When I tried to put it on, she screamed harder and attempted to hit me before throwing the dress across the room. 15 minutes later when Grandma showed up, little Miss Innocent was more than cooperative. Jump forward a few hours and Mommy is again trying to get her dressed to go to Grandma's for dinner and she again throws a fit. Daddy brings her dress in and she smiles while fully cooperating. This whole dress thing came after three days of her and I butting heads about EVERYTHING!
I am on to her game, though...she is trying to make me forget all the wretched tantrums she has thrown with sweetness and she is not playing fair at all. Last night, after four days of torture, crying and frustration on both sides, she woke up about an hour after I had put her to bed. I hadn't gone to bed yet so I took her to the living room where we could snuggle up in the dark for a few minutes. She kept turning around to look at me, holding my face in her little hands and giving me kisses. It didn't make me completely forget but I definitely went to sleep a little while later a little less frustrated and angry than I was before she got up.
This too shall pass, right?
We have officially reached the stage where Cayden's curious 4 year old mind wants to know about absolutely everything. As his mom I am so excited to see his little mind at work and know that he is not only observing the world around him but really wants to understand it. However, I am also completely exhausted by it. A 10 minute car ride can and does yield about a million questions about anything and everything he sees. Forget about trying to watch something on TV while he is in the room or walk through a crowded store because those 1 million questions that I answered on the way were just the tip of the iceberg. And saying "I don't know" is not an option. I have tried to tell him that I just don't know why those people are wearing black shirts instead of red like he is or that I am not sure why the person in the movie I have never seen before is driving down that road but all that does is causes the same question to be repeated 30 seconds later. Understandable, right? Why wouldn't I know why the the car in front of us in the car wash was there first or why the kid in the other cart is crying in the middle of Target? I am Mommy, I am supposed to have the answers. But, I have to tell you, coming up with answers to every question (and I mean valid answers because I don't want him going to school the next day telling his friends something extremely inappropriate because I couldn't come up with the "right" answer) is a lot of pressure.
When I actually stop to think about this though, I realize that this stage is just another step in his giant leap towards becoming a "big kid!" Every day he is doing something new, telling me a new story about something that he is certain he has completely figured out or using new words that I didn't even know that he had heard before and using them correctly. He has even completely grown out of toddler sized clothing. It is sad to know that I now have to shop in the big kid section for him and that refers to himself as a big kid now.
