Skyler’s behavior at this age is about as predictable and consistent as Spring in Kansas. We have perfectly mild, smile-inducing sunny afternoons, followed by 60 mph winds, hail, and thunder. Tears fall like rain during scattered showers, where the sunshine of laughter breaks through the clouds suddenly and then disappears as quickly as it came. And there’s almost always a tornado watch somewhere in the area.
I’m pretty sure it’s just part of being three, but I can’t help if the craziness of her emotions doesn’t spark some worry in my mind. Are three-year-old’s really supposed to be this bipolar, or is Skyler suffering the early stages of what could be a tumultuous adulthood filled with therapy and antidepressants?
When 5 o’clock rolls around I have to gear myself up emotionally for pick-up time at preschool. She’s gotten better about leaving with me without much commotion, but once we get in the car, there is no telling what the ride home will be like. She’s recently requested to leave the parking lot a certain way so she can see my office building out the window. If I leave the usual/most direct way, it’s not visible, and boy does she let me know. I get yelled at first, and then she falls apart into the most sorrow-stricken cry, as if someone had stolen her Pink Bear.
Or today, she sang “Bringin’ Home My Baby Bumblebee” and other munchkin tunes all the way home, with that innocent joy that had me smiling and singing along with her. We even went grocery shopping, and though she asked for certain things that I wouldn’t let her get, she accepted my terms calmly. Not one tantrum. We got home and she played happily till Ronnie got home. She immediately turned on her pouty-face, the attitude came out, and our night has been a volatile Spring thunderstorm since.
I’m not sure why the terrible two’s get so much publicity. I think they were just preparation for what three brings, only three-year-old’s are smarter and stronger, which makes it way worse. I’m hoping age four brings an emotional climate more like the Mediterranean zones, and less like Kansas. But I am not holding my breath. This little one may just have her mother’s strong will, and her daddy’s quick temper, and we are all weathering the storm as she’s trying to figure those things out.
One response to “Spring Flings”
man, i’ve said it before, but hank is exactly the same way!!!
one time when i was taking him to preschool, a mom i know saw me in the parking lot and offered to wait so i wouldn’t have to take julia out in the snow for what should have been a ‘quick’ drop off. he threw a fit that julia wasn’t coming in w/us. there was kicking, screaming, crying … of course we were already late. at the end of the story julia ended up coming in w/us.