Weepy, Emotional, Anger - the terrible 3's?

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones

Well to say the past few months have been a roller coaster for my daughter and I is an understatement. 

We never really had an issue with the "terrible twos" we didn't know what other parents were talking about, and definitely thought we were lucky. But then one cold winter day Lily turned 3 and everything changed! It seemed as though over night our happy go lucky toddler had turned into a psychotic manic! Her emotions frequently fluctuate between happy and over top crying. During these very sad moments she will cry about everything from there being no gum in the house - to the fact that we forgot to buy a guinea pig. 

Now believe me when I say "psychotic manic" I mean it with love. I love the fact that I know my daughter will be a stubborn adult and will not let anything get in the way of her dreams. Some days it feels like I am living in a war zone but as these moments are fleeting I try and appreciate these moments as much as the happy ones. We take time to debrief with her and talk about her emotions and how she is feeling afterwards. As I have mentioned before I don't think that it is possible to be the "perfect" parent, mother, father, step-parent etc. but we are trying our best to navigate the confusing world of childhood emotions. 

Some days I just find myself hoping that another "switch" flips on the 4th birthday! 

A great resource is a site called "Aha Parenting" that I just found and has links to many articles about different types of children. 

Click here for the Aha Parenting Link