Stephen is Three

Stephen turned three years old on Friday. He was fairly excited about it, and he seemed to enjoy all the attention. He even went so far as to tell his mother, "I'm three, mommy. I don't need to take a nap."

He's fallen into a pattern of behavior in the past few weeks that seems to be standard three year-old: screaming. It seems to be based on frustration, because it tends to occur when it's time to shift gears, go to bed, eat ... well, anything, really.

Example: Last night, he and I were playing with his Lincoln Logs, building a little house. It was time for his bath, and I told him so, to which he stood up, screamed, and ran into the corner, all sorts of angry. Nothing really placated him; he was mad because I was making him stop playing with his logs.

Well, we made it into the bathroom (him kicking and struggling the whole way), got him into the tub, and then he was fine. Of course, when it was time to get out of the tub, we had more fussing and screaming. Suddenly, the kid who didn't want to take a bath didn't want to stop taking a bath.


Just about everything is a struggle. I can only assume he's trying to establish some kind of control over his life. We give him lots of choices, and it's not like he gets away with murder. Hopefully, it will pass after a time. Seems that it's a pretty common trope among three year-old kids.

I still love him, of course, and he's good more often than he's rotten. I feel sorry for him, because he's at a point where he's on an emotional roller coaster. He can't control his emotions very well, and that's got to be pretty rough.


Maddy, of course, continues to be cute as a button. She says, "Uh-oh," now, which is pretty hilarious.

She like playing with the Lincoln Logs, too!