The assertion of independence... whoa Nellie!

I forgot. I really did. I forgot somewhere after my son turned four and left three in his quickly forgotten past. I forgot the flip flop of the life of the three year old.

Terrible twos? HA! I laugh at those people who use that term! There is *nothing* terrible about two! Two year olds want to be part of their own world and want to make choices that affect them. If you let them make choices between two or three predetermined appropriate options, they'll *always* choose something you'll be happy with!

Three? oh all bets are OFF man! With three, you can offer two or three predetermined appropriate options and a three year old will demand a fourth option! The fourth option is most often not appropriate. So... if you, like I, try to be an empathetic parent and are working to raise a thinking child, you'll say "you know what my darling (ok, maybe different word there...) that is an interesting choice - I think we can give that a try" ----- to which your darling three year old will FLIP OUT AT YOU for approving that choice.

Why you ask? Why is that choice now not acceptable to this angelic cherub? Why? Why? WHY?!

Who the bleep knows! She most certainly doesn't know why she chooses or doesn't choose this or that or the other... she is happy with oatmeal on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday but NOT Thursday. why? because. just because. and then once you make her scrambled eggs (because that's what she asked for and was excited to help you make...) she refuses to eat them because, she's just not in the mood for eggs anymore.

Why? She has no idea -- she's three!

This scenario in one form or another will play out day after day after day after day... until she figures out what she needs to figure out. That she *is* a decision maker in her own world, that she *is* a separate entity from me and that she *is* ok and she *is* and will always be supported in this new role she'll be playing in her life for a LONG time to come.

If I survive this developmental phase.