FOUR

Forget the Terrible Two's and the Troublesome Three's. In our house the magic number is 4.

EM is 4, and she has the diva act down to a science. There is the screaming, the wailing, the running to her room and throwing herself on her bed crying something about "never being able to play with friends" or "go to the party" or "play with my toys." All this means, in 4-year-old speak, is that "I'm not getting my way so let's give this a try."

:::sigh:::

Compared to 4-year-old diva outbursts, I'll take JT's 4-year-old ADHD outbursts. Outbursts? HA, that's an understatement. Can outbursts come in a continuous stream? Like from the time he turned 4 to the time he turned 5, give or take a couple months? Mostly give a couple of months, lots of couples.

The upside of having a 4-year-old diva run into her room and slam her door is that she just put herself into a timeout, voluntarily.

When the boys were younger time-outs were executed military style. They sat in the time-out chair, for as long as they were old, keeping time with a digital timer, with a minute added every time they strayed from the time-out rules (i.e. standing on the chair, sliding off the chair, walking away, arguing, ....) Jo Frost would be proud.

What I'm truly afraid of is this behavior is a precursor to years to come. To a certain degree her behavior has a comedic element, for a four-year-old. In a 14-year-old? Several friends, all with girls, and I are making plans to form a support group to get us through the teenage years. Oi Vey.