Ticked Off Toddler

Most everyone has heard about the "terrible twos." Not as much is written about the "tyrannical threes." We are quickly learning that three-year-olds can be pint-sized little manic-depressives. They can be way up one minute....and the next they are standing defiantly with arms crossed, one step away from spitting up pea soup with the ability to rotate their heads 360 degrees.

Rachel has definitely tried to test her boundaries. She has spent a lot more time standing in the corner lately. Perhaps most frightening, she told us the other day that "being bad is more fun than being good." After standing in the corner six minutes and being spoken to harshly, she declared, "I don't want to be bad anymore."
Or more accurately, as she says with her accent, "any mow-uh."

Anymore, as in Friday night. We were at Temple and Rebecca was among the teachers honored for their hard work at Sunday SChool this past year. Rachel couldn't stand mom being in front of a large audience alone, so she bolted to the front to be held, barefoot, having already shed her socks and shoes.

Afterwards, she and a little girl named Ally were jumping together on a raised stage near the buffet line when the following exchange occured.

Daddy: "What's your name?"
Ally: "Ally."
Daddy: "Nice to meet you Ally. How old are you?
Ally: "Four."
Daddy (turning to Rachel): "Tell her your name."
Silence
Daddy: "Her name is Rachel. She is three."
Rachel: "No, I'm four!"
Daddy: "Rachel, you're not four. You are three. Ally is four!"
Rachel" "I am Ally too. And I'm not three anymore; I'm four!"

Etcetera.

Other times, the excuse for questionable behavior is "I'm sleepy." Also handy is "I miss my (insert name here) friend at school." It never has anything to do with the bone of contention, but it's used nonetheless.

Anyway, today she was great. She spelled her name on the refrigerator magnets at home without help. She stayed reasonably close to us at lunch. She even ate all her food. I took her to the bookstore and picked her up five books, including one of the Arthur the Aardvark Series that teaches proper manners.

At some point, she put on a foam hat with Ernie from Sesame Street on it. The store has a train set in the children's department and the hat fell off Rachel's head and landed on a little boy, who said, "Ouch."

We told Rachel to apologize and she absolutely refused. We returned the five books we intended to buy her to the shelves one-by-one. After each book, she was given another chance to say, "I'm sorry." She still wouldn't say it. The little boy looked hurt Rachel wouldn't apologize. She just crossed her arms, pouted and said she was tired.

So....no books. She wanted to be carried to the car. She had to walk. Tough love. No videos the rest of the night. She eats what we do. No child of ours will act like that.

When she awoke from her nap, I asked her again why she refused to apologize. She replied that "it's not fun!" We informed her that lots of things in life are not fun, like changing diapers or passing up on what we want to see so she can see a video. Whenever she'd ask for something she could get herself, I'd tell her I wasn't going to get it because "it's not fun!" I hope the message got through.

In the meantime, mark my words, I will go back for that manners book!