3 1/2-year-olds and the pain they cause

This is a special song that I like to call "WhywhywhwywhwywhyWHY????" It's going out to all of you who have a 3 1/2-year-old.

When I let you choose the popsicle flavor you want, and you still start squealing--WHY?
When I vault across a Lego tower to prevent your older brother from taking Mader out of your hand, and you still burst into wailing tears--WHY?
When I give you a hug and kiss and you respond, "Mama?! I *hate* you!"--WHY?
When I'm pouring the cereal into your bowl right in front of you and you keep on whining about how you want cereal--WHY?

Whyohwhyohwhyohwhy?
Why you wanna play me like that, sweet potato?

I feed you, love you, hug you, kiss your boo-boos, divide the cookies into two equal parts so you get your share,
I'm giving up the best years of my life and my stomach looks like it's been mauled by an angry lion from the stretchmarks and let's not even talk about my boobs,
But you just keep on freaking out over nothing and refusing to go to sleep.

I'd send you on a long vacation at Grandma's but she's too smart for that,
WhywhywhwywhwywhywhwyWHY??

Comments

[AmyinMotown]

I love you people. Seriously. Because my refused-to-nap 3 and three quarters year old is sitting next to me watching Doodlebops because she refused to nap and then peed herself.
I am deeply creeped out by Doodlebops. But I have a raging deadline and was counting on that nap. And reading everyone's comments, do you guys live in my house? Because it sounds just like that here.

When she was two and a half and driving me crazy people kept telling me three was worse. I hated that. But they were right. I thought a lot of this was sibling issues but it appears the psycho is normal.

[Erin]

this is perfect, except mine is a just-turned-3 year old.

Why won't you sleep? Why won't you sleep? I know you are tired, so why won't you sleep? Also, WHY must you run from me every time I call your name, even if it's to give you candy? WHY?

Erin

[Moxie]

AmyinMotown, you were one of the people that inspired me to write this post. ;-)

[pnuts mama]

@ramy- who are you and how are you living my life?? :) except we are in construction instead of the move, but still...wow!

@charisse- yeah, the level of questions at 3.25 scares me for what is to come (cowers in corner)

@professor mama- drink it anyway!! i'll bet the great benefits of the pomegranate will negate any minor harm from the vodka...besides i totally buy into the old wives tale that dark beer or red wine help production...seriously, though, i know i've read it's ok to consume alcohol in small amts (usually right after nursing) while bf'ing. on kellymom or maybe nursing mothers companion?

@hedra- holy crap you gave me such a flashback to my mom saying the same poem!! whoa!! yeah, karma's a bitch, huh? god help me with this child.

this is totally why i finally decided to get over my fear of the unknown and put pnut in nursery school 2 afternoons a week...

[SarcastiCarrie]

pnut's mama - I think there is a reason that historically nursery school starts at age 3. I know I was shuttled off 2 or 3 mornings/week for a few hours of co-op pre-school.

[Moxie]

pnuts mama, they did a study maybe three years ago and red wine inhibits milk production. No info about white wine, though, or beer. I think dark beer is certainly a go.

[Tzipporah]

Hedra, what is P.E.T.? I could use some Jedi mind tricks.

Especially if they work on husbands, too.
;-}

[pnuts mama]

thank god cause we like us some guinness draught up in this joint...good to know. either way it seems to be working since my pork chop of a son gained THREE POUNDS in a month- yikes! i'm going to get him one of those 'college' t-shirts...

i was connecting how i've been handling this freaking phase combo'ed with sleep deprivation, back to school, new job etc. with our posts on losing our tempers/reflexive hitting from last week. it's no wonder i feel like meggiemoo- stretched thin and waiting for the strand to break. sigh. another good reminder to stop beating myself up over acting like a jerk sometimes and just work on better coping skills and new tools for a new developmental phase.

we call the insane mood swings 'hostage negotiation' in our house- it helps to remember that you aren't negotiating with a rational person...amyinmotown people keep telling me 3.5 is worse than 3- and then i drink more, go back in my corner and cry. seriously.

[Jill in Atlanta]

Whywhywhywhy hasn't this ended when he's already 4 1/2? What is typical of kids his age?

[meanderwithme]

I'm still trying to stop laughing AND crying to get my thoughts together. Get out of my house, people. Oh, and I'm sending this one to my husband, so he'll know that NO, Miss M isn't the only possessed child. Ames & Ilg has saved my sanity many times already, and I can't even begin to tell you how many people I've referred to it.

She's 4 in less than 2 weeks. When I read a comment that a child did this until 4-1/2, I nearly started to sob. Horrid, indeed. I'm SO glad that my 6 month old is a sunny baby, because my used-to-be sunny nearly-four-year-old is making me insane, except when she's not.

@Charisse & Michelle -- who knew there were a passel of atheists around here? Mine hasn't gotten to the "where do we go" part yet, but she loves to talk about death and dying. If you haven't picked it up, "Parenting Beyond Belief" (Dale Gowan) is awesome, and he has a new book coming out soon, if it's not already that's a hands-on guide to raising freethinkers.

Finally:

@hedra, yes, do tell us what P.E.T. is, pretty please!

[Leah]

Two was such a breeze for us. Sigh. We had no idea what was waiting for us. My sweet, compliant, shy little girl child has sprouted horns and a forked tail.

The song we are playing here is one I call the "HalleNOjah Chorus". Sometimes I try to count how many times she can say NO before she has to take a breath, but I always lose track around 500 or so.

[hedra]

P.E.T. is Parent Effectiveness Training. Comes in a book form, or in classes. Very good reading (ohthankgod someone says it isn't necessary to be 100% consistant all the time because I AM NOT - if I'm honest, some days I want to cry, and some days I want to yell, and some days I hold it together, and some days I sail through... but sure not all in a row!).

It's an honest book, with really useful methods that you can start applying NOW and never have to really change in any major way throughout the child's life. It's hard to picture some days for toddler/preschoolers (try REspectful Parents Respectful Kids for that age - same basic methods, but examples closer to that age).

If you get the book, read the whole thing rather than stopping half-way. Around half-way I was ready to drop it in the trash because it obviously (DUH) was not going to work. Then a few chapters later it was "OH, now I get it! COOL!"

And it works. I've got a few good examples of that and non-violent communication (again, similar methods/techniques) on my blog.

The lovely thing about P.E.T. (and NVC) is that YOUR needs are considered valid, real, important, and so forth, as well as the child's needs. It is about problem-solving the intersection, not bowing to theirs all the time OR insisting on ours all the time - find as many ways to meet both as possible, try them, repeat. Sometimes it won't work, but sometimes needs are in conflict and cannot be worked out on any one item. Sometimes they win, sometimes you win, most of the time it is win-win, with these methods. (Both books available on Amazon, *cough*seelinktopleft*cough*)

Even though the underwear thing still drives me nuts.

[meanderwithme]

I meant to say about the underwear dance, YES. As a matter of fact, we did that one just yesterday evening, until I finally informed her that *I* was going to the library, with or without her. If she wanted to go, she just needed to put some on, already, and I didn't care WHICH PAIR she chose. Good thing she didn't call my bluff.

Score on P.E.T. -- my library has one at another branch, so I should get it in just a few days. You know, because I need to have eight books on my nightstand instead of seven. Short attention span, much?

How on earth, by the way, did I not notice before that you have a blog? Duh. Double duh.

[professor mama]

@pnuts mama: good rationale! health benefits of pomegranate! yes! my "window" is increasing as Little Bit is now stretching out feedings to 4 hours. so..... i think we'll need to mix it up this weekend!!!

[rudyinparis]

@ Amy in Motown: Psycho. The new normal. Good times.

and, Jill in Atlanta, FWIW, Eldest had a truly awe-inspring tantrum just last night as a matter of fact, and she turns {wincing} 5 next month. It came out of nowhere, and was undoubtedly triggered by being tired, starting preschool, etc.,... all understandable, but it really threw me and DH. Yes, there was a big chunk of last night when both kids were screaming in separate rooms and we were in the hall bteween them, hissing at each other, "WHAT THE EFF DO WE DO NOW?" Nibbled by baby ducks, devoured by them... like someone said up-thread, it's a good thing those baby ducks are so damn cute.

[Toni]

Thank you for making me laugh.

And I just realized that for us, the 1/2 year disequilibrium melds nicely with the seasonal cabin-fever in the spring... That explains a lot about last spring. Even the daycare teachers made a comment "He's usually not that bad, but.. he just won't sit still ever these days!!!!" :)

[GS]

3 1/2 year olds?

Um. My son is almost 2 1/2 and let me tell you we sing this one at home a lot. Everyday.

!!!

[Jamie]

Haven't commented in a while, but am loving this post. My 4 1/2 year old was a monster at 3 1/2. "NO, I'm going to stay right here and not move (middle of the parking lot)" And, whenever frustration became intolerable, it became a virtual slugfest around here (that would be his attempting to slug me, not vice versa).

And, he was an absolute angel until he was three - I mean as a two year old the kid could sit in the fanciest restaurant playing silently with ice(!) for two hours. Age 3 just about killed me. Now that we are at 4 1/2 I'm mostly dealing with the passive aggressive "love" demonstrations towards his one year old sister (e.g. "E I love you" - while hugging her neck until I'm afraid it's going to snap off)

Fun times everyone!

[Tracy]

This ends at 4? You promise???? Cuz she is 4 next month and I REALLY need this phase to end!

There is just so much DRAMA ! Everything is the END. OF. THE. WORLD.

And her version of WHY is What happens if....

What happens if I dont hold onto the stair rail?

You might fall.

What happens if I do hold onto the stair rail?

You wont fall.

What happens if I fall?

You'll get hurt and we'll both be sad.

What happens if I dont fall?

You wont get hurt.

What happens if I put on my shoes now?

Then we can go to the playground.

What happens if I don't put on my shoes now?

We cant go to the playground.

What happens if we dont go to the playground?

You cant swing.

What happens if we do go to the playground?

You can swing.

What happens if I swing.....

I have a Masters in Communication with a focus in Language Acquisition, so I am fascinated with the process, but Holy Cow does it never end !!

[Caroline]

Michelle, Charisse & Meanderwithme, having my very sensitive 4 year old ask about death (and cry, and cry about death) made me want to run to the nearest church and scream "Sign me up," because boy, did I want to start talking about meeting up in heaven. Alas, not exactly in my belief system.

Her teacher loaned us "The Tenth good thing about Barney" by Judith Viorst, which actually helped quite a bit. Despite making ME cry.

[Sharon aka Mommie Mentor]

Great fun today. In case anyone was looking for a way to save their brain for a few minutes each day as they go through this lovely stage—try this.

You can switch the endless questions around so the burden is on the child and not on you? What about adding a dose of silence somewhere in there? I can see brain cells resting as I write this.

What if Caroline, nothing wrong with her great dialog, just using it because it was the last one posted, what if the conversation went like this:

What happens if I dont hold onto the stair rail?

What do you think will happen?

I will fall.

That's right.

What happens if I do hold onto the stair rail?

What do you think will happen?

I won't fall.

You're good at this. (If you call it a game, the drama begins again!)

So what will you do?

I will hold on to the rail.

That is some good thinking!

Allowing a child to answer their own question allows a parent to see the level of thinking their child is exploring at this moment versus answering the child back which can cause them to reject every word you offer. It also gives you a 30 second brain break!

[Jan]

My 2 3/4 boy is hitting this stage now. And my 4 1/4 girl isn't through it yet.

Oh yeah, I'm *this* close to going out for a gallon of milk and never coming back.

Thank God mine sleep, or at least stay in their rooms when it's sleeping time.

I finally figured out the nonstop questions were simply the kids' way of saying, "talk to me, engage with me" so now when they do it, I answer the first one, then talk about something else. If we're going to talk 27 hours out of the day, we can at least discuss things I'm interested in. If I can't think of anything I'm interested in, I help them memorize stuff.

So far, we've got The Pledge of Allegiance, The Lord's Prayer, everybody on earth's phone number and my college silly-made-up-words chant. I'm running out of stuff I know by heart.

[sueinithaca]

Ahahahahahahahaha!

My newly minted 4 year old is still working through this phase, but has improved dramatically in the two weeks since her birthday.

A wise friend of mine (who has teenagers, bless her) likes to say to my daughter "Fair isn't everybody getting the same. Fair is everybody getting what they need." Whenever she pitches a fit bout her brother getting an extra grape or sip or milk or whatever.

[Meika]

Holy crap. I need to go back to work NOW... because no way will I handle that when my barely-verbal 19-month-old is pushing me toward the asylum...

[swimmermom]

@ hedra 1:08 pm: not only is the "girl with the curl" about a 3.5 yo, I'm quite certain that "This little piggy" is, too! I believe the whole rhyme is actually about *one* little piggy having a few mood swings. It hit me one day when my 3.5'er was doing the yes-no-YES-NO-YES!-NO! thing about going to the store. One minute he was all excited, the next he was a heap of teary child-flesh over the prospect of visiting the dreaded Target. Were we going to go or not? "This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home."

I thought I'd try to get some food into him to improve his mood. Want some of this, or that, or this other thing you scarfed down yesterday? yes-no-yes-no- etc etc. "This little piggy had roast beef, this little piggy had none."

We finally went to the store and what happened? He whined up and down every aisle and CRIED ALL THE WAY HOME (sounding remarkably like "wee wee wee," no lie).

I rest my case.

[maria]

MOMMY BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL.
No Charlie, we are stopped at a light, it's okay but thanks anyway
MOMMY I SAID SOOOOOOOO
okay, then. so how was your day at school buddy, i missed you.
MY POOP WAS LIKE A METEOR SHOWER IT WAS JUST LIKE ONE MOMMY A BIG ONE LIKE BOOM CRASH
oh my, well that's interesting. Did Miss M read you anything interesting today?
NO SHE DIED!
um (fumbling to recall if I saw Miss M when I picked him up or if the preschool aid seemed especially morose today and possibly hiding a horrible death from parents...
YEAH MOMMY SHE DIED! CAN WE GO TO MCDONALDS?
hmm. buddy, I don't think Miss M died, maybe she was just out sick today, like when you have a cold. and we can't go to mcdonalds because that is a special treat and we have to get sissy from the sitter before she gets upset that we are running late
DID SHE KILL MISS M? I THINK SHE DID MOMMY BECAUSE SHE WAS SOOOOOO MAD AND I WANT MCDONALDS NOW MOMMY NOWWWWWW
Charlie, we can't say things like kill, it makes us sound a little crazy. And Miss M is fine, you'll see her Friday and we can't go to MCDonalds even though the sitter would definately NOT kill us, she might just be waiting and we miss our sissy, too.
MOMMMYYYY I think a METEOR SHOWER KILLED MISS M AND SHE IS SO SO SO MAD AT THAT!!!! AND I AM STARVING AND THIS IS A SPECIAL PARTY BECAUSE I AM HUNGRY!!!!! BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL MOMMYYYYYY!!! REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO DRIVE SAFELY LIKE DADDY OR YOU MIGHT BE KILLED LIKE MISS M!!!!!
Charlie, I think Daddy needs to pick you up on Friday.

-maria
god bless us, every one.

[AmyinTexas]

3 was a nightmare for the older two. #1 didn't grow out of it until Kindergarten at 5.5 yrs old. #2 is 6 and she's *still* in the terrible 3s. I expect the baby will drive me to the brink as he's only 16 months old and already has a bad case of the terrible 2s and 3s!

[Katie]

I am so happy to read this! We had the worst time at soccer practice, which ended with Mommy dragging her wonderful children to the car among a chorus of screams. S is getting better each week, but she refuses to play--but soccer is all she talks about for the rest of the week. I am going to have a nervous break down if she yells at me one more time in front of the other very well behaved kids.Thanks for the help, and the laughs...

[Kate]

LOL. Excellent, excellent.

Ames & Ilg totally saved my bacon at 3.5--which for my daughter came in the deepest darkest depths of winter when we couldn't go run off some steam outside because it was too cold or too rainy. For months.

But really, 3 1/2 was horrific, far worse than 2 in either kid. Most 2s still nap, so it's automatically better! Also 3 1/2 was when my daughter started getting too big to physically remove from a situation...which was clearly a tool I used often or I wouldn't have missed it so much. Still do sometimes.

Four isn't always a stroll on the beach, but it's way better than where we were 9 months ago.

[jbq+h]

@Mommie Mentor--I've tried your technique, but I get from my nearly three-year-old daughter, "I don't know. You say it."

I'm going to sing, "Whyohwhyohwhy?" too.

[ramy]

@pnuts mama--so you were also under the influence of heavy hormones/clinically insane when you planned out the last few months?;p

I'm really trying to pay attention to hedra's advisory: parent the child in the stage they are in. I think my husband and i have been stuck in the last one. Being pregnant in this high energy and freaked out stage was hard on us all.

I'm glad to hear of the death questions. we're getting a lot of that.

Only 2 more months till 4. hopefully she doesn't hold onto this until 5-yikes! or maybe I'll learn how to parent it more smoothly. I can hope, can't I?

[Karen]

Can you say 3 3/4 year old and 9 month old? A lactation consultant told me that the best time to have a drink is while you are nursing - so I just have to nurse more? I wonder if pumping counts.

Tonight I was emptying our van after a camping trip and DD was running up and down the side walk. As I picked up a case of pop, all of the cans fell out:
Me: SON OF A GUN! (pretty good for me)
DD yells: Mommy, don't call daddy a son of a gun
Me, shocked: I didn't call daddy a son of a gun
DD: smiles
Tidy up cans and start walking towards house. Turn corner to find neighbour, who is minister, standing there. Said when he heard DD say "son of a", he couldn't help but stop to hear what was coming.

[hedra]

Ah, these are great.

We do the 'what do you think?' question back for some things, but we've also had the 'I don't KNOW that's why I asking YUUUUU!' reaction now and then.

That's also a good way to get an idea of what level the scary-serious questions are at, and lemme tell ya, they are NOT all at the age-appropriate level. Ferinstance:

G at 2 and a couple months asked me "What is God?"

Serious mental scramble - what exactly is he asking? So I said, "Hmm, what do YOU think God is?"

He thought about it, and replied quite seriously, "God is everything, all together."

Like I have a better answer than that? My little pantheist. (This being the same child who told me he sees and talks to the souls of babies before they're born, and has always known when I was pregnant, when I was about to miscarry, and how many babies were in there... who am I to argue with his idea of God, heaven - which by the way is just another lifecycle alternating with our lives in the material/physical world, per him, or anything else theological or mystical... Oh, and same kid who when presented with broccoli, went off to talk to God (in a corner) about the whole broccoli thing, and then came back and said that God told him that he'd 'have to try it some day, so why not now?' ... granted, same child told me that when he was in heaven God locked himself out of the house and he (Mr G) had to climb in through the window to let him back in, and oh, God has a brother - his name is also God. It's hard to tell them apart, except that one is God, and the other is his brother. AHHHH! Good thing we're Quaker/UU... otherwise we'd have some major torquing of the church teachings.)

[Kara]

I am awake at 5 AM because my 3.5 year old was crying in the middle of the night and now I can't go back to sleep.

Why was he crying? Well, before 3.5 years, I'd expect the following: hungry, scared, cold, thirsty. Typical kid stuff.

But now? It's because he's wants to build with his legos. That's right, he's having a temper tantrum at 5 AM because he wants to play legos, but he's too tired to do it, but he wants to play with them NOW, and no it's not sleepy time its building time but he's sooo tired that he NEEDS to build!

Is 5 AM too early or too late to drink?

[marci]

you could always pretend it's the after party...

[SarcastiCarrie]

Kara - My Chuckles woke up the morning we were leaving for vacation at O'Dark Something to tell me that we had to put books in our suitcase RIGHT NOW so we wouldn't leave them behind. I mumbled something incoherent about doing it in the morning. Chaos ensued. I located books and set them on top of the suitcase. NO NO NO IN NOW. So, that's what I did so I could stagger back into bed. Whew. At least we all got back to sleep.

[Lisa]

Yep, no go on the "what do YOU think?" in our house, neither. And simple "hey, I want to show you something" distraction is rapidly losing its allure. Trying to keep the distraction-by-food-suggestions to a minimum, lest I create fun new issues. Gaaah.

@Kara and SarcastiCarrie: What is UP with the 4 AM fixations (some of which turn into tantrums)? It doesn't seem to be night fears, hunger, pain, etc. I can only guess that in our case they're outgrowths of (a) anxiety re starting preschool - which in waking hours he loves, but still - and (b) "hmm, what happens if I DON'T sleep?" experimentation. Last night I gave in and just offered the boob, despite the potential for reversal of night-weaning and attendant horrors. Everyone in the house was *that* tired.

Anyone have anything else for the middle-of-the-night wakings/tantrums/I-wanna-play fixations? I need help.

[jen]

I'm scared because my girl is 2.5 and is already doing that.

Please tell me there's an end in sight. PLEASE!

[Sharon aka Mommie Mentor]

Okay, I wasn't all that serious yesterday with my response and I see that I frustrated some, sorry about that. So here is my, hopefully better, answer. I did some research on this before I answered and here’s what I found.

“One common thread running through all the research findings about a young children’s ability to think about thinking is that 3-year-olds just aren’t capable of thinking about an object in two different ways at the same time. They form one representation about an object and answer all questions in terms of that one thought.” (Flavell, Green & Falvell, 1986) from, Understanding Children.

“At this stage children also link all those ideas that pertain to *me* and all those ideas that pertain to *not me*. In this way, they begin to make the distinction between fantasy (things that are inside me) and reality (things that are outside of me).” The Irreducible Needs of Children, T. Berry Brazelton and Stanley Greenspan.

“You’ll notice that children at this stage often have a tendency not to close their circles of communication. Instead they go from one idea to another idea without respect for the logical bridges that commonly move our conversations from one topic to another. The experience can be quite jarring, as your little conversationalist leaps from one topic to another while you desperately try to keep up.” Playground Politics, Stanley Greenspan, M.D.

So how does this play out? From 0-2.5 or 3 a child has been basically dealing with the emotional and physical side of development and language, but not really *thinking* as we know it. Age 3 begins analytical thinking in its most basic form. The problem is this new analytical thinking is being mixed with the emotional side of being 3.
It’s called Emotional Thinking.

The child is working with the difference between fantasy and reality and needs to check in and ask a ton of questions to see what exists in their mind and what’s real, what applies to me and what doesn’t apply to me. That’s why this age loves movies, and can be so scared by them at the same time, Monsters Inc. anyone!
That means he wants you, the source of all knowledge, to answer his question. But if your answer differs from his thoughts on the subject, then he can’t hold both thoughts, it’s too much for him to understand, so he retreats to where he’s been focused for 3 years—he gets emotional.

So what can be done? That’s a personal choice. Some parents have reported feeling emotional wrung out or beaten up by their child at this age and find they’re reacting and doing things they hoped they’d never do or say. Those parents say they want discipline to help manage this.

Other parents want to know when can I say enough is enough without sacrificing his budding intellectual interest? What kind of boundary will do that? How do I say, it’s not okay to scream at me when I’m simply answering your question. How do I say I know where you’re headed with those questions and I don’t have it in me to go there with you right now.

What if you said, sweetie, I have the energy to answer 3 more questions, which 3 are the most important for you to have answered right now? That’s one way.

What happens if that’s not enough for your child? You could then say, shall we write down the other questions you have so you can ask me later when my ears are open for questions again? I think we could set the timer for 10 minutes and I would be ready then.

Will they reject that, most likely yes, and if you keep doing it they will come to accept it too. This new intellectual interest is all new for them, so how you choose to react to the many, many questions and rejection of your answers will also be new to them. So do what feels best to you. This is the age when they’re dealing with conflicting issues, thoughts and emotions, and there isn’t one way to deal with this. This is where you *begin* to decide how to handle these things for you, your child and your family, every family is different. I just wanted to answer Moxie’s WHY…

[Sara]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this post and discussion. Helps ease my guilt about those constant thoughts about wanting to kill my 3.5 year old ;). It started getting bad at 2.5, and has had minor periods of upswings, but maybe I'm due for some equilibrium soon?

@ramy: totally hear you on the move plus newborn plus 3 year old. we moved across the country to a city where we knew no one when my son was 6 weeks old and daughter was almost 3. she still almost seriously injures him on a daily basis, no matter what i've done. sigh. it so sucked. it's still not great...but i think it might finally be starting to get better.

now i only wonder why i didn't do preschool for more than 2.5 hours 2X a week. what was i thinking?!

so i shouldn't feel bad about "not enjoying every moment" of this phase?!

[Jennifer Monroe]

THANK YOU ALL for the laughs!! My mother always said they call them the "terrible twos" so you let them live. I have a 15 1/2 yo and a 13 month old - plus my high needs ds who - *YES* - turns 4 tomorrow, and I hope it's like magic! (but I'm hanging onto the bottle of Jack Daniels just in case)

[Melissa Schuppe]

Sounds like my 8-year old, actually.

[jbq+h]

@Mommie Mentor, Ah ha! and Thank you!

p.s. You didn't really frustrate me. The little person did :)

[EDBECKATHA]

am nursing 6 week old while 2.5 year old gets a bath from daddy. I hear:
crying
GO AWAY! I NOT!
listen to daddy listen to daddy - close your eyes
I NOT! I WANT MY STAMPS! PEAS! PEAS DADDY, PEAS!
if you hold still, I will give you your stamps back when the bath is over
NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I ALL DONE!!!!!
etc.
3 is worse? EEEEEEEEEEAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!

[Linda]

Uh, do you have a hidden camera in my house?
Because my almost 4 year old is driving me straight off the ledge.

[ugg outlet]

Your blog is so funny that I can not help to finish it front and back. It is of help during my boring work.

[cheap jordans]

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