This is a summary for Kaitlyn in her three months between 4-4.25 years old. Kaitlyn is an interesting child...she is just easy. I don't really run into challenges with her like I do Brayden or huge surprises like I do McKenna (like yesterday when she jumped into the pool fully clothed...kiddie pool with one inch of water, it wasn't dramatic as I make it sound, but she did slip a book in there with her. Seriously!). Not that she is perfect, but things are so calm with her comparatively speaking. She is my angel baby.
EATING
One area Kaitlyn is not perfect in is eating. Compared to McKenna who will eat literally anything you tell her is food and Brayden who is not that different, Kaitlyn could be called picky. But I think compared to the general population of 4 year olds, she isn't picky. She is sensitive to certain foods--and these are foods that I couldn't eat while nursing her. They are foods that caused her pain with reflux. I sometimes wonder if they still do.
She doesn't like anything acidic, so all things tomato-based and orangy--no go. She also doesn't like any berries. Any. Not even fresh-from-the-garden strawberries (have you ever had that? How could she not like it?). To her credit, she tries them constantly. She sees that everyone but her LOVES such things and she wants to like it, but she doesn't.
SLEEPING
Her naps are at a point where she sleeps usually 3-4 days a week. I was reading through Brayden's preschooler summary (his first ever) today for 4.5, so three months older than Kaitlyn right now. In it I say we had moved to rest time. Rest time! Already! That is coming up fast. Right now, I don't think Kaitlyn will be at "rest time" point in three months or less. But I would guess we are there by Christmas.
PLAYTIME
Playtime is good. She loves to play with friends and loves to play with siblings. She does great for independent play. No issues.
DANCING
Wow! So much has happened in the last three months. Kaitlyn had her first dance review at the beginning of this period. I never took dance, so I have no idea how things work. One of the moms told me Kaitlyn must be the best in the class because she is front and center. She was really cute and really good to watch her teacher the whole time and she knew her moves well. It was one of those moments where you could see at a young age the benefits of simple things you have taught your child, like listening to authority figures.
CLEANING
You might remember last time I mentioned that an area Kaitlyn really needed work in was her work ethic. The girl has totally changed that. She is a hard little worker now! She is a good cleaner. She initiates cleaning. She cleans after herself. I don't know what flipped in her, but she is fabulous.
DRAMA QUEEN
Something about Kaitlyn is that she can be a drama queen. Now, I am so far from drama myself. I don't get it and I have never been able to. My husband, however, is quite adept at handling drama (no brothers, three sisters, one mom). Whenever Kaitlyn is having a "moment," he takes over. Logic apparently doesn't work against drama, and that is all I have. I need to analyze the scenarios and get some tips on dealing with drama. Happily for me, both Brayden and McKenna are highly logical.
Then you have strange moments. Like a couple of weeks ago when Kaitlyn walked up to my husband and I and announced she had just been stung by a wasp. Um, sure you did. If Kaitlyn got stung by a wasp, Kaitlyn would be milking the sympathy for all it was worth. She was perfectly calm about it. But to humor her, I looked her over, and she was right! She had been stung by a wasp! She was not crying, she was not freaking out, she was not demanding she be quarantined in the house, she was fine. I put some baking soda mixed with water on it and she was on her way. See? Drama makes no sense.
I must add, while she is a drama queen, she is nothing compared to the three year old girl she once was. That was major drama. The four year old Kaitlyn is much more rational than the three year old Kaitlyn. I think every mom of a girl 3 or older that I have asked has affirmed their daughter also was an emotional 3 year old. Only 8 more months with McKenna until then.
IRRATIONAL FEARS
Speaking of drama, Kaitlyn had a 2-3 week period in there when she was deathly afraid of wind. Yes, wind. Do we live in tornado country? No. Did she ever see anything on the news about tornado? No. It was right as trees were getting leaves--she was terrified. The wind would blow (so yes, this was spring), she would run in the house. She would only come back out if she was wearing her thickest winter coat. 60 degrees and breezy. Brayden and I both tried logic on her to no avail.
She tried to be brave. She would go sit on the swing and swing for an hour straight in the wind to try to fight against her fear. It must have worked at some point because she is okay now. Yesterday we had the strongest wind I have ever seen here and she didn't bat an eyelash at it.
BAD WORDS
When I say "bad," I am referring to words like "dumb," "poopey," and so forth. They are words she delights in saying and I do not delight in hearing from her cuteness. This is definitely our current challenge. She will say them if she thinks I can't hear her, but of course I make it my business to hear her. When she can't control herself, she is sent to her room to play alone.
I thought it through and decided she is abusing her verbal freedoms. The only way to control her verbal freedoms is to control who hears them. So if she chooses to use words she knows are not appropriate, she doesn't get to have the freedom to be verbal around people for a period of time. This is helping. I am glad for that because she doesn't mind playing alone in the least bit.
SCHEDULE
This is a hard time period because two months were in "normal school year" with this scehdule and one month was in our summer schedule. I will do her "normal" schedule here and her summer schedule next time.
We have variation to this for playgroup and dance class, but for the most part:
7:30: Get up. Read a church children's magazine. Get ready.
8:00ish: Breakfast
9:00: Learning intro. Then some free play with McKenna.
10:00: Independent Playtime
11:00: Learning activity. Then more playing--possible 30 minute of PBSkids.org or TV time.
12:30: Lunch
1:00: Play with Brayden
2:00: nap
4:00: up. Play until dinner
5:00/5:30: Dinner
6:00: Free play
7:00: Start getting ready for bed
8:00: In bed
About once or twice a week, she plays PBSkids.org or watches 30 minutes of TV. I also have her help with chores.
has some information on weaning from thumb and finger sucking. They stress the importance of substitution. Substitution is when you use something in place of the undesirable action. Your child sucks thumb/finger out of a need for self-soothing, so when you are working to stop or slow down the behavior, you want to find a replacement activity. You want to keep your child's hands busy. This might be with "...a soft blanket or stuffed animal to hold instead" (page 161).
