Jack @ 4 Years, 5 Months

These days, we’re never quite sure which boy is going to climb out of bed each morning.  Sometimes we get well-behaved, obedient Dr. Jackyll, and other days it’s argumentative, defiant Mr. Hide. Much of the time, Jack is great to have around. He’s curious about everything so it’s fun to explain things to him and teach him things. When I use a big word in conversation, I define it for him, and I’ll think he’s probably not retaining it until we’re driving along in the car and he says “Mom, look! The clouds are dissipating!”

Some days I really don’t know what to do with him.  I know I shouldn’t let him engage me in arguments, but I’m still learning how to manage this stage so that we can get through the hard days keeping the level of frustration and anger at a minimum. I’ve just read an outstanding book called, Have a New Kid by Friday so we’ll see if implementing the author’s suggestions make a difference.

We’ve entered the “potty humor” stage, so he’ll run around the house, chanting things like “Buckets of toots! Buckets of toots!” and collapse laughing at his hilarious joke.

We have abandoned the sticker chart for something more effective that we call “Happy Bucks”. Jack earns happy bucks for doing things like rinsing his plate and putting it in the dishwasher, doing handwriting worksheets, helping Mommy, etc. and can spend them for TV and computer time. This has been a GREAT way to limit TV, and reward good behavior.

Jack misses his cousin Emily. They had a great time playing together during our visit to Ohio- we barely saw them. We did hear them though, when the mutual bossing escalated to screaming!