Our Journey to a Family of Four: parenting

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Parents + 3 year olds= Insanity

Three-year-olds are just...awful. I mean this in the best and most honest way. I love them to pieces but year 3 is hard. Three-year-olds have attitudes and opinions. They have tempers and out of control emotions.

The problem is that I, a 33-year-old mother, have the same issues: attitude, opinions for days, a temper and out of control emotions. The mix of all of us together is a walking hormonal nightmare. The only true difference between my 3-year-olds and me is that 1) I can drive. 2) I can drink. 3) I don't throw myself onto the floor of the produce section of the grocery store.

However, there are windows in the day where three-year-olds are just the absolute best! Their genuine love of everything. It is always "the best ever" and they "love you soooo much". They tell the greatest stories. So great that I am never sure if the story is fiction or not. I hope fiction...they can get crazy! All of their songs come with hand motions...even the songs they make up in their head. They believe in magic, imaginary friends, peace, love, hope, and me.

They really are spectacular little people. I didn't really mean that they are awful earlier...but parenting got real this year. We can legit screw up our kids now. I feel like before age three, they have no recollection on what the hell we've done or said to them. Now they will remember all of our mistakes and missteps. They will officially need therapy from their childhoods. It is quite the pressure.

Raising one 3 year old is challenging. Raising two 3-year-olds is impossible! Ha! They couldn't be more different from one another either. They really are opposites.

Max is the particular one...some may say OCD. He loves to cheat at board games. Hates to lose...whether that be a game or racing to his bedroom. He screams when he is upset. Like scream-screams. Not little toddler tantrums. Like he is summoning demons from deep inside...exorcist style. Like a Gremlin being fed after midnight. He has broken this mama's heart with phrases like "I don't love you" and "You are a mean mom" and "Get away from me".

But he is also the most loving boy ever. He loves me hardcore. He snuggles and rocks with me every night. He dances to songs in his head and has some pretty good moves. He knows every word to every song on the radio. (This may not be a great parenting move by us.) He is SO smart. I don't mean because he is my kid. He really is a gifted child. We joke that he is our future engineer. He is a self-anointed "Puzzle Master" as he can put together large puzzles meant for someone twice his age. This is most likely the reason he is also in more trouble at school and home than his much calmer sister.

Harper is our free spirit. She marches to the beat of her own drum. Her drum is filled with glitter, rainbows, unicorns, puppies, dolls and dresses. Seriously the girliest of girly girls. She hugs everyone she loves with such force that you know she means it. Her high-pitched voice warms your heart as she says "I love you so much, Mama!" She doesn't know how to run...this was made apparent at our brief 6-week stint as soccer players. She gallops or skips everywhere she goes. This just adds to the girlish charm of the princess.

However, Harper is no angel (although she played one in a Christmas play). She is very calculating. She is seen by most everyone as the sweet one (mainly because everything listed above). However, she knows how to manipulate even the expert preschool teachers. She definitely has her Daddy in her back pocket. She also has a mean pincher...as in her hands. She pinches her brother quietly, but if you ever get a glimpse of her face as she does it...you may have nightmares. It's the three-year-old in her really. She can't help the devilish grin (at least that's what I tell myself to sleep at night).