Terrible Fours?

the so-called "terrible twos" and even the threes were not so bad for us, but i'm beginning to wonder if our time has finally arrived. overall, i still have to say Skye is a great kid and gives us very little trouble. a woman once said to me, if i had kids like yours, i'd have ten and more (she obviously has no children of her own). however, she's in this stage where making jokes is the greatest thing and brings home lots of "bathroom" language from school. there is quite a range of words that gets used to call each other. she called me "stinky piece of trash" once. so we had to have a talk about what words are ok to call people and what words are not. we're trying to teach some discernment, but it's hard at this stage. i'm sure all the kids in the class think it's hilarious whenever these words get used. Skye did come home from school the other day and told me that she told one of her friends he couldn't come over to our house for a playdate if he used bathroom words. his response? well, then you can come to my house to play. the world of four year olds!!

while Claire and Skye have some great sister moments, we also have the other end of the extreme. for the past two days, we've had lots of shoving, hitting and screaming at Claire because Claire is "ruining my stuff!" i'm sure it's only going to get worse until Claire is old enough to understand. i find myself making mistakes too, like not setting up a rule like: Skye can't play with the things that'll make her upset if Claire touches them while Claire is awake. those are toys to be played with during nap time. and of course i'm always harder on Skye because she's older.

but as you can see, not all sister times are terrible. there are some sweet moments like this one where Claire is giving Skye a hug!