No. I’m not already counting down the days until my 3 month old goes to preschool. However, I have more than once wished I didn’t take my 4 year old out of daycare in the last few months in moments of frustration. This child rearing 2 kids thing is a completely different ball game!

Terrible two’s and a threenager

Yeah, we luckily escaped most of this.. or so I though. Is there such a thing as late onset threenagerism? I’d hear stories from other mum’s about their kids when they were 2 and 3 and I thanked my lucky stars that our daughter wasn’t like that at all as it seemed super exhausting.

Well now I’m dealing with attitude with a capital A, empty threats, late night parties and so much mess on a daily basis. If this is a preview of what’s going to happen when she turns 13, I’m moving to Hawaii.. on my own…. without a phone.

There was one in the bed and the little one said

“There are monsters in my room!” This has now become almost a nightly pattern where two little feet pitter patter to our room, and then 2 minutes later dad is walking her back. Maybe she is just trying to train him to wake up multiple times a night so he can do the breastfeeding some of the time instead of me in the future? :o)

Along with this we now have a very independent 4 year old that is truly testing the system. For a kid that loves story time, the threat of no bedtime story had worked a treat when dinner took 45 minutes plus to be eaten, or other shenanigans happened. Had being the operative word, as the little turd/genius is now totally cool with reading herself a story.

She’s also happy to go without an after dinner treat for not eating her dinner. She has worked out that means she doesn’t have to finish her food. If she is quiet enough in the morning, the old phone which plays her lullabies is now her personal gateway to YouTube kids. Well it was for a day when I thought, “Wow, she is having a huge sleep in, I feel so refreshed!” And then found her on it. Now the phone lives on top of the fridge.

Tricks of the trade

The old “stand in the corner” and go to your room methods no longer work either. Go to your room equals “I get to play with all my toys” (took long enough to work that one out), and she now asks which corner I want her to stand in with a bored expression. Kind of ruins the fun of it.

I will take my hat off to this one though. She duped me for probably 3 days with the tooth brushing in the morning. Didn’t kick up a stink at all, made me smell her minty breath and all! And then my husband caught on and realised she was actually just eating the toothpaste as the toothbrushes weren’t even wet. Yep, the kids got balls.

Woosa moments

So when i’m trying to get my baby to sleep for the 4th time in an hour because storm trooper has busted in and woke him up 3 times, I do sometimes remind myself that it’s only 2 months til Feb (preschool starts then).

But instead of turning into a banshee (which I have done), I’m trying my very best to stay calm. I’ve even decided to practice mindfulness meditation to help by downloading the Smiling Mind app. How am I doing? Well, with my kegels, trying to lose weight, fit in a nap once in a blue moon and look after 2 kids while still renovating a bit… pretty shite.

I’ll say it again, I’ve managed up to 50 people at once and had to performance manage some tough ones.. but this is by far the hardest management gig yet.