The Middle One

We are on a struggle bus with this one lately. The drama, the tantrums, the not staying on task, the getting in trouble at school, the waking at night. It's hard y'all. We had a couple issues with Drew when he was 4 but overall nothing like this and I'm not sure if it's because she's the middle child or because she's a girl or what but WHEW. She's a beautiful girl with so much potential but I just feel as though we're working through so much with her right now. I  know it's just a phase of life and we'll get through it and someday she'll read this and laugh but for now we are just surviving.

Overall she's doing great in school but we do get notes and messages from the teacher often about her staying on task. We can see this in the home as well. I do NOT suspect any form of ADD or ADHD I just think she loses focus and in our minds we only have Drew to compare her too. From birth he was a very routing and focused baby so I'm sure Ady is more like the average child but we are constantly reminding her to stay on task. I get it, she's 5 and this is perfectly normal, we just don't want it to effect her learning.

The drama and tantrums I think is just born in the girls. This is a whole new world for us and it's kinda funny to watch. She will be all sweet and lovey one minute and then you say something that she doesn't like and it's like a switch went off and she just breaks down. Again, it's an age appropriate thing of testing boundaries and limits but MAN do we have to walk on egg shells with her. The good news is that we've learned some distraction techniques when she does throw a fit and have learned to navigate this somewhat with her.

As for nighttime, we've struggled now for a few weeks. I broke down and posted on FB looking for help and had SO many amazing comments with awesome suggestions. We're trying a variety of them and although nights seem to be a bit better than a couple of weeks ago she's still not sleeping the full 10-11 hours. Based on the 50+ comments from friends this sounds very normal so I'm not worried, I just don't want it to effect her ability to concentrate at school each day!

I love her little self so and remind myself it's just a phase and it's touch being sandwiched in the middle. We dealt a lot with Will last summer that I decided to keep her home all summer and send Will a couple of days a week. I'm SUPER excited to do big kid things with just her and Drew and know she'll enjoy having some baby-free days! For now though, wine is my friend. Ha! :)