The 4's

Whoever came up with "terrible two's" or "the three's are worse than the terrible two's", must not have had a 4 year old. I am here to tell you the 4's have presented an entirely new set of challenges, obstacles, and struggles. In fact, if I could find a mental institution that would take reservations, I would probably have a standing reservation for days like yesterday.

I say "days like yesterday" because it was off the chart, but in reality it has been going on for several weeks.

I am hoping to look back at this blog post when Macie is going through her ferocious 4's and be able to say "thank goodness this stage is just temporary". (If I look back in 4 years and we are still in this stage with Kaelin- I will definitely take advantage of the mental institution.)

Where to even start...

The 4's have brought sassiness to an entirely new level.

The defiance has become intentional.

The independence has exceeded a 4th of July celebration.

The time out spot has carpet that has been worn thinner than the rest of the room.


You might be saying "how could that sweet little girl cause any problems"... that is what I have been saying, but she is just proving to me daily how she can find new ways to get into trouble.

Yesterday... The Mother of the Ferocious 4's (so far)
I go to pick Kaelin up and Mrs. Lisa looks as though she is about to begin shooting fire from her ears. I knew this could not be good. She tells me the stuff that Kaelin and her son, Bryson did during the day. (It just got uglier from there.)

It started early in the morning. Kaelin and Bryson wanted to feed the fish. Mrs. Lisa told them they would have to wait until she was in there with them.

Did those two wait....

Of course not, they each dumped an ENTIRE can of fish food into the two fish bowls (plus all over the cabinet and all over the rugs). So... what happened...

One of the fish died.

I think those two got in trouble (time out), then they had to go to Wal-mart to replace the fish (since the fish was Addison's fish and she was at school during all of this). So Lisa decided to brave Wal-mart with both of the little monsters in tow.

Were they better in Wal-mart....

Of course not, they would not sit down in the basket and they kept fighting with each other. When I asked Kaelin about the incident, this is what she said (it sounds funny now, but trust me, there was no laughter last night). "Well, mom, Bryson wanted to sit in the front of the basket but he would not sit down. I wanted in the back. Then Bryson wanted in the back and he would not sit. So, Mrs. Lisa spanked his hinney and said we need to listen to her. I told Mrs. Lisa that I was listening. But that just didn't happen, mom. So we both got put in time out." The story went into a little more detail but that is the major part of it. The part that cracks me up (but not last night) is when she said "but that just didn't happen". No... it did not.

So, I talked to Kaelin the entire car ride home. Todd must have seen the fire coming from my ears because as soon as we got out of the car he said "Uh Oh... Kaelin, are you in trouble". We told him the story and he talked to Kaelin for a while.

We took all of Kaelin's privileges away (no TV, no swingset, etc). About an hour later, we went out to eat (where she got in trouble AGAIN). We went to eat Mexican food and I caught Kaelin out of her seat stepping on chips. She was crunching them into tiny crumb size pieces. I thought to myself... wow... this is something a two year old does. Are we just now going through our terrible two's.

We get home and she proceeds to get into more trouble. (When it rains... it pours). Todd was on the phone and Kaelin decided to play her guitar right in his ear. When asked to stop... did she... NO. She got a spanking and then sent to her room. (If you are thinking... wow... she was just playing a guitar... then re-read above). This was all in ONE day.

We did make Kaelin call Mrs. Lisa before she went to bed. She apologized for her behavior. This is when it finally began to sink in. Kaelin started crying when she was apologizing. She felt incredibly bad by this point (finally... we are making some headway- maybe). When she was laying in bed, she told me she felt sad and it was making her stomach hurt. I took advantage of this opportunity to talk about what happens when we make different choices. She seemed to understand but I am sure it will be something with have to revisit many times.

We were all in bed by 9:00 PM (completely and totally exhausted).