Something really odd happened this week....
On Monday I woke up as a mother of a threenager {for those not familiar, this is the colloquial term for 3 year old, once you have one you'll understand why}. Three years old! How did that happen? Well obviously I know how it happened because I've seen it unfold before my eyes over the last 1100 days, however it still seems like one minute I was in a daze wondering where my newborn appeared from {if that statement makes no sense you obviously haven't read my birth story} and now I have a sassy, head strong three going on thirteen year old toddler.
Isn't it funny how pregnancy seems to take 4529 years to end and yet once the baby pops out time seems to go by so quick. It's also ironic that we tend to forget all the hard times that we thought would never end. I'm fairly certain during the first few months of her life when sleep was almost non existent, and we were dealing with a super unsettled baby due to allergies, I didn't think life was going by at a blink-and-you'll-miss-it rate. Yet here I am three years later wondering where all the time went. I'm aware it all seems rather cliche but it really is true. And now I'm worried I'm going to wake up one day soon and she'll be a teenager.
Speaking of teenagers, wow is the term threenager accurate! I thought the last few weeks that we had entered the threenager stage a bit early as the phrases NO!, I don't wan't to and I said NO had been making regular appearances in her vocabulary, however it's like she turned 3 and a switch was flicked and now she's a full blown moody tiny teenager. You know when a caterpillar goes into its cocoon and comes out a butterfly? It's like that, but not as pretty.
There are good parts still though of course like the cuddles for no reason and aww mummy I love you and mummy you're so beautiful at random moments throughout the day, but the rest of the day seems to be peppered with tantrums, mood swings and defiance. I've admired her sense of independence in the past, but after a one hour screaming tantrum over bed time it doesn't seem so endearing anymore. I'm really starting to think that three is a test all us parents need to go through in order to be prepared for the real teenage years. I'm just hoping she's getting all her angst out now and we'll coast through the teens. It could happen, right?
There are good parts still though of course like the cuddles for no reason and aww mummy I love you and mummy you're so beautiful at random moments throughout the day, but the rest of the day seems to be peppered with tantrums, mood swings and defiance. I've admired her sense of independence in the past, but after a one hour screaming tantrum over bed time it doesn't seem so endearing anymore. I'm really starting to think that three is a test all us parents need to go through in order to be prepared for the real teenage years. I'm just hoping she's getting all her angst out now and we'll coast through the teens. It could happen, right?
Do you have a threenager too?
Or if you've survived the threenager phase do you have any advice for me?
Toni x
Linking with Grace