The Upswing

"It's a phase" is what every mother hears when they are complaining about child behavior issues. Mostly I hear it from my mother or mother in law. For the most part they are correct too. It's just that when you are getting hit in the face repeatedly or your child goes boneless each time you say "no", you can't help but ask yourself what their problem is, and how long will it last. A phase isn't a very specific amount of time, and patience is a challenge when dealing with head butts and tantrums.

I am writing this moment though to remind myself in future trying times that my daughter right now is amazing! Last week she was so challenging emotionally. There were a lot of meltdowns and crying over issues that didn't seem worth a whine but instead got hysterics. She has always been sensitive about separation but at some point would get over it, but last week the end of the school year she had trouble saying goodbye in the morning, and trouble going out to her gymnastics class from the waiting room. At one point last week I got very stern with her, looked her in the eyes and said "enough." I am not exactly sure if that had a single drop of influence on her or she was just done with being moody, but she has been easygoing this whole week.

We went to the merry go round yesterday and arrived fifteen minutes after it closed. My hands began to sweat as I dropped the bad news and much to my surprise she said "bummer" and asked if she and her brother could run around instead. Total shocker. This week had been a full one with all of the end of the year culmination celebrations and exhibitions. She had open house at school where we saw all of the work she has been doing, a gymnastics exhibition, and the school fair.  Between those there has been a lot for her to be proud of, and a lot for us to be proud of her for. She has had quite a wonderful year and it shows.

Kindergarten offers so much newness, between having fish in the class, worms, snails, caterpillars, and getting to bring home and hatch the caterpillars into butterflies was really beautiful. The last segment of the year was the farm, and the class had an incubater and twelve eggs. Over three weeks the children watched the eggs and waited. They waited for a peck a crack, a sign that a little chick would really hatch from the eggs. It became a curiosity for all the families as well. We peeked our heads in daily to see if anything was happening. One day it all began and one chick made it's way out, a little wet, fuzzy yellow fluff was first followed by ten more.

We were invited to throw our names into the hat to take two chicks home and Twig begged. I had no compelling reason to turn her down so I said "yes." So as I write this I am sitting next to Chicken Little, and Chicken Big and they are sharing my office with me for a few weeks until we take them to a farm. So I suppose we are technically the foster farm but that turns my stomach a little and is likely the reason I haven't had any eggs for the past few weeks, other than that everyone is happy.

The gymnastics show was great, and she showed no sign of stage fright and even seemed to like showing off to us. She also wanted to get up and sing at the school fair but there is time for that later. She completed terrific works in school and was a charming host at open house. She is a pleasure to be with right now and I can't soak her in enough. We are really enjoying our time together right now. The good, bad and the ugly -- it's all a phase, right?