Kiersten’s Blog

Look at this cute little thing!  Here she is in her new thrift store rain boots (in the summer time with no clouds in sight) helping me grind wheat.  I think she looks adorable!  My, how a photo can fool.  You hear about the terrible twos and then people talk about how the threes are really more terrible.  Well, here we are at 4, almost 5, and things haven’t gotten better.  I find myself almost counting down the days until all-day kindergarten starts up in August.  That means six hours of peace.  I think I can handle that.  Right now we’re dealing with screaming children constantly.  Of course church wasn’t great.  It never is with the two kids I have.  Things get better once we can send London off to primary.  She has all of those leaders in primary fooled, though.  They think she’s the perfect little angel.  If they could only see her at home, they would see how wrong they are.  For the last week, there has been constant screaming in our house.  I’m not quite sure what I did wrong along the way to get that sort of reaction from both of my children.  And it’s not just screaming, it’s ear-piercing-top-of-their-lungs-high-pitched screams.  Ashton just learned it this week.  He gets mad at London when she touches him or takes things from him or is in his way, or for any number of reasons and he screams at her.  Then, of course, she screams back.  But often she’s the one to initiate screaming.  She is so stubborn and disobedient.  Many times when I ask her to stop doing some annoying thing (like play a xylophone right in my ear) she’ll look at me, to make sure I know she’s doing it on purpose, and do it again.  Just to see what I’ll do.  When I ask her to stop again, she’ll say, “What happens if I don’t?”  I tell her that I’ll take the xylophone away.  So of course, right on cue, she does it again.  This time, the xylophone gets confiscated and the screaming begins.  We have started taking away toys every time she screams.  It seems to have an effect, but it causes more screaming, in which case more toys are confiscated.  I have quite a stock pile of London’s favorite toys, but she does everything she can to get them taken away.  We’ve tried positive reinforcement as well, like time on the computer when she’s good, or a sticker chart where she can earn stickers when she’s good.  Nothing seems to work.  In fact, as soon as she does anything that she knows will eliminate chances of getting a sticker, she asks if she can get a sticker and when I tell her “no,” she starts screaming and wondering why.  I’m trying to spend more time with her, but I’m often so upset with her that I don’t want to spend time with her.  I know that’s what she’s craving, though.  I’m just not quite sure exactly how to remedy the situation.  For now, I can’t wait to send her off to school.  I think it’s high time we send the kids off on a vacation at Granny and Papa’s for a few days.  Maybe it will help me to feel sane again.