The first time I heard someone use the word threenager, I probably rolled my eyes. It sounds stupid and I figured how could a little kid be all that bad. HAHAHAHA. I was wrong.
Do not get me wrong, I love Payton, but damn…this stage is not easy. She finds new ways of trying my patience just about every day. The big thing is not listening. We tell her to eat her food, put her toys away, get dressed, whatever, and she just ignores us. Or maybe she will just straight up say no. That drives me crazy.
The other part is the attitude. It is actually cute and funny, but also can be extremely infuriating. One thing she loves to do is put her hands on her hips and say “no, I don’t like you” whenever you tell her to do something. She does it with this sassy attitude and it takes everything not to laugh.
A great example is from the other day. I picked her up from preschool and she refused to put on her coat. It was warm enough, so it was not a big deal. We get to the car and she says “I don’t want to ride home, I want to walk.” And then she storms past the car and then runs through the field. I had to chase her down.
The other fun part about all of this is that she wants to be independent. She will try and go to the bathroom by herself. She can do it about 80% of the time. However, there are times when she does not pull her pants down far enough or her outfit is a bit more complex. Always fun to see her come out of the bathroom soaking wet and realize that it is time to clean up some piss.
And yet, there are these incredibly tender moments from her. She will come over and give you a kiss on the cheek. All of that anger and frustration just melts away and you completely forget about how she was a total jerk like six minutes ago.
Yep, threenager may be a stupid made-up word, but it perfectly describes what life is like in our house at the moment.
