Muy Caliente

I have a 4 year old for sale. Great price... free to be exact.  But be warned, once you take her there are no refunds or exchanges.  All sales are final.

I'm just kidding (sort of).  But for real the girl makes me want to day drink, all day, er day. I was sorta prepared for the terrible twos, and then I realized that the threes are MUCH worse. But I was not prepared for a 4 year old tyrant to run around my house, demanding food, ignoring the rules and being a general butt-head.  That's right, I said it, my daughter is a butt-head.  I LOVE her, more than I love anything on this earth, apart from her daddy and her brother, but I don't really like her at the moment.  She talks back, she flat ignores me, she runs a hundred miles an hour around the house all day.  She whines constantly.  I don't know how it's possible that she has so much in life to whine and complain about. She is free, white and beautiful. She has two parents who love her and feed her and dress her in cute clothes and buy her all the things and yet..... she is stuck with a perpetual "I smell shit" face on.

Michael Phelps definitely has more reasons in life to be making that face than my 4 year old

She is having a hard time obeying the rules at her daycare. The last 3 days that I picked her up she was in time out when I got there.  A while back when I arrived to get her the teacher pulled me aside and said that Phoebe got in an argument with one of her friends and that she spit at her.  SHE SPIT ON SOMEONE.  I feel like once you have reached spitting status in a fight, you are, like, one step away from being on an episode of Maury. 

Uuuugh, its like the ghost of Christmas future

The good news is that I think we have some time to reign her in before she turns to a life of daytime tv and terrible grammar.  

The most frustrating part of her current attitude is that it is definitely not something that we tolerate or let her get away with.  We sort of pride ourselves on being hard-ass parents so that our kids don't turn into serial killers.  Not hard-ass in the sense that we beat them or anything (I swear!) but more along the lines of not allowing bad manners, nipping bad behavior in the butt and having consequences when you make bad choices.  No exceptions.

So where did we go wrong?  I tried to put her in a time out the other day and she laughed at me. She laughed and I almost threw my shoe at her.  And then Oliver laughed because she laughed, and while everyone was laughing at mommy for trying to be an adult and actually be in charge, I decided it was time for a glass of wine. And then I put myself in a time out.

It's a good thing she is so cute. Can I just blame the rest on her red hair?  She's just so spicy

Is it just something about her age? Testing her limits more so than before? Hopefully it is a phase and she will grow out of it.  *sigh* I really hope so.  This momma is tired. 

Now, if you will excuse me, she finally fell asleep and so I am going to go get my adult beverage and watch something other than Paw Patrol.