Lets start with Kinley. Oh my gosh!! 3 is hard!! This has really been a challenge for us! She has always been a hard kid, demanding and wanting things her way all the time. I have always said with this girl, she is not going to do something until she is ready and not a second before that. Remember my birth story with her; I pushed for 5 hours and ended in a c-section. Yep this girl has her own agenda, always has. Matt and I have learned to step back a little and let her assert this independence she has. She is so strong willed and sassy right now, but the sweetest thing. She is our sour patch kid. Sour one second and sweet the next.
The tantrums are off the charts! The kicking, raising her hand like she is going to hit, slamming doors and yelling. It is a lot! We have very high expectations of her and really have to step back and remember she is 3.5 and has to learn things, while instilling manners and kindness. There really is a fine line with disciplining her and letting her figure things out. We do put her in timeout in her room when she gets out of control. Mostly because I know she needs the time to cool off and I don't want her putting any holes in my wall or her brother's head with the toys she throws. I pick her up, put her in her room and tell her to come out when she can say sorry. Usually she is screaming her head off and then quickly calms when I pick her up, saying "No thank you mom, I don't want to go to my room." Then I tell her yes she is going to her room and she can come out in a few and then the tantrum starts again. She will yell and scream for a few but then calms herself down and comes out. Most times she doesn't come out and say she is sorry but she is calm so we let her come out. She eventually will say she is sorry at sometime throughout the day and it ends up being a very random time, but she does it when she is ready and I never have to tell her again to apologize.
She usually is not mean, but we have had a few episodes of her being mean. I struggle with this. She is not a mean child. I don't know where it comes from, other than her just figuring things out. It really is hard to remember she doesn't have the coping skills we have and just sometimes doesn't know how to deal with situations that are frustrating. I mean really; sometimes I want to to scream at the top of my lungs and cry my eyes out too when things get frustrating. How can I tell her she can't do that?! Ahhhh parenting is tough! Most of the times she is the sweetest thing though! And the love she has for her brother melts my heart daily!
We had her speech tested a few months back because she isn't enunciating some syllables and words correctly and we wanted to be proactive and do something now if something needed to be done. Do you know how hard it is as a parent to admit there could be something wrong with your child?! So hard guys, but we knew we had to put our feelings aside and do what was best for Kinley. Thankfully the speech therapist said there is nothing to worry about. She does have a little bit of a frontal lisp but it should correct itself by the time she is 5, the struggles she has are 100% normal for her age and she is right on track. The therapist said she is one bright child and her articulation was above average. She had a great year in preschool and I know she has grown so much with her social skills. She amazes me everyday with things she tells me. They watch EVERYTHING, even when you think they are not watching, they are!
We had her in swim lessons since her 3rd birthday and decided to take a break for the summer. We will probably start again in the fall when hopefully things calm down a little. We wanted to give her a chance to participate in other activities as they came up over the summer. We tried gymnastics and she really liked it so we might start that up again as well. She is moving to a new preschool in the fall so we want to get through that transition first and see what activities they have to offer.
I can't believe she is going to be 4 in just a few short months! Like I said 3 has been tough for us but it has really been an eye opening learning experience for Matt and I. She is a great kiddo and we are so blessed to call her ours! While we have had a few downs with her the past few months we have had many more ups and we are very lucky! She is healthy, happy and loves her brother more than anything in the world!
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