Fabulous Four

My sister sent me a little photo the other day and on it, it said that the average four year old asks over 400 questions a day. I think that is an underestimate. Daisy is so very inquisitive! I am glad she has so much curiosity about life. I read somewhere that if you don't listen and talk to your kids when they are little, then why would then when they are teenagers? So, I do my best to answer questions and talk with Daisy. She says funny stuff. It is interesting to see how her four year old brain tries to logically put things together. She is smart and doesn't really miss anything. Her and I went on an outing, just the two of us, this week to see Cinderella. It was just a bit over her head, but she was happy to spend the day with me and go to the movies. She was very curious about the "mom-step". Made me chuckle every time she said it.

I like four. She is still little enough that she needs her mom, but is also starting to be very independent. We have been working on little chores. Every day in the morning (when we are on our game), Daisy dresses herself, makes her bed, brushes her teeth, and says her own prayers (with a bit of help from me). She is so proud of herself and how she can do big girl things. I am glad she came first. She loves to be in charge. I can already see this as a blessing and a curse. She likes to take care of Rocky, get him his blankets, fillS up his sippy cups, and finds him shows to watch. However, she also likes to control everything Rocky does. Luckily, Rocky is a pretty easy going kid and takes his bossy sister in stride, but even he has his limits.

Daisy likes to play with friends. Her best little friend is still Allie, they can spend hours a day playing together. Its great for everybody. They have even started to let Rocky play with them. It makes me happy to see Daisy play with her brother.

Some days are very drama filled, I am not going lie. She is very "spirited". I am glad though, we help each other grow. The first week or two in our new house, every morning Daisy would have a massive melt down. One morning we couldn't find her Elsa sock, and no other sock would do! She cried and screamed. Another day, a fly flew near her cup, you would have thought a spider the size of bird was in the house (we all would have a massive freak out if that happened)! 

I have been trying a new approach with helping Daisy handler her big feelings. Instead of timeouts and mean Mom, I have been letting her cry it out and letting it fizzle, then I scoop her up and just hold her. Then we talk about what happened. So far I feel that it is more effective. One morning, I was at the bottom of the steps and she was at the top refusing to come down. I let her cry for about 15 minutes. Finally, I went up stairs scooped her up and took her to my room. I asked her if there had been a lot of changes and she cried, "yes". Then she told me she didn't like stairs or not being aloud to have sippy cups on the carpet. It made me laugh, but also helped me realize that sometimes she just needs me to understand that sometimes its just hard to be four and deal with big changes.

 A few weeks ago, I was having an "interesting" week, and by that I mean I got my IUD out and was feeling a bit hormonal. I swear that Daisy picks up on my hormones. Her and I were having a rough week. The nice Mom who had been so good to just hold her and talk it through, was not present. Anyway, one afternoon she was mad at something and throwing a fit, and I was done. I went in my room to have a few moments of peace, so I could recompose myself and take on the rest of the day. I then heard Daisy slam her door.  I hate when this is the main feeling in my house, so I went in to her room and she was sitting in her closet. I looked at her and asked if she wanted to go and get a piece of chocolate cake. She immediately stopped crying and we all went and got cake. It made the day about a thousand times better.

I hope weeks like that are just preparation for the teen years, so her and I can just breeze through them?! I love her so much. I am glad she helps me be a better person and mother.  Even when have an off week, I am so thankful she is all mine.