The Ferocious Fours

We are, I’m sorry to say, in the very thick of the ferocious fours.

I remember going through the exact same thing last year with Riah, and now every day it seems Anna does something else that is just so very…four right now. Drawing on the bathroom wall. Stealing money from her brother’s little bank in his room while he’s at school. Ripping up books (!) at night time when she’s supposed to be sleeping.

I am trying to figure out what’s going on or if there’s some sort of change happening around us that I’m not aware of, but when I ask her why she does XYZ, she just responds with “I don’t know.” And a lot of times, I believe her. I truly believe she doesn’t know why she does what she does, just like Riah didn’t know exactly why he shoved his knee into his iPad last year and cracked the screen.

I suppose the “why” of it doesn’t matter as much as this age, because more times than not, they really don’t know why they do certain things. They just do them because they’re 4 and it was something they wanted to do in the moment. I am doing my best to remind myself of that, and more times than not, what usually happens when I discover a drawing on the wall (remember this?) is that I am angry in the moment, but the anger usually subsides in about two minutes and the realization of their age kicks in. And I move on.

This is where we’re at right now and the truth is, for all the little frustrations a 4 year old can bring, there are a million reasons why she is so amazing and why she is the love of our life, and why, at the end of the day, I really wouldn’t want her to be any other way.