This is how we do it

Sara has been helping us in the yard a lot this year and I'm always amazed at all the stuff she can do now, without as much supervision or need for direction.  She helped Daddy clear his garden to plant corn.  Dan and I were both amazed how much she helped and it cracked us up that she wore her pink watermelon dress while digging around in the dirt.

She helped pull all the grass out of the garden, load it in her cart, and pull the cart over to the compost pile and dump it.  She also helped Daddy plant a row of corn.

Sara has a very busy summer ahead of her (so do I consequently).  She is signed up for creative dance lessons at the music academy where she and Dan have music class.  Also, she will be going to a week long summer camp there for music.  She is also signed up for swim lessons again.   I'm hoping we'll also go to the library a lot because they have lots of summer programs and also we hope to go to the splash pad a lot.  I wish I could take Sara to the Spanish Fork pool because she'd probably love that but I'm nervous about watching both her and Brennan at the same time in the water.

Also she is planning on having some sleep overs at some of her cousins houses.

I hope this summer we can resolve the tantrums that she has been having.  Both Dan and I feel like it's starting to get out of control.  It seemed like it had gotten better for a while and now it's bad again.   We've researched the issue on line some, specifically tantrums for 4 year olds. It seems like other parents have similar problems with four year olds as they begin to develop their personalities, gain Independence, and test out their parents boundaries more.

 In fact, some of the accounts of what other children were doing were far more shocking than anything we've seen from Sara at all, this is an example http://smilingmom.com/blog/four-year-old-tantrum/   So maybe we haven't got it so bad and maybe we're not even doing anything all that wrong.  Dan and I keep trying to figure out what we could be doing differently, what she is or isn't getting enough of, and we're mostly coming up empty handed.  I'm hoping if it's a phase that it's over soon. It's been the worst struggle, by far, that we've ever had with Sara.   She did not tantrum during her 2's or 3's, so maybe she was saving it ALLL up for 4, lucky us.

I've noticed she really responds well to things she feels successful at, like we all do.  So we try to magnify those things for her and really tell her she's done a great job.  We also try to repeat things that she'll be successful at because there has been a lot of negativity lately.  We feel like we're always correcting her behavior and she's always testing us otherwise.   She loves to hike, loves to garden, scooter ride, sing songs and dance, read, she likes having special jobs to do, etc.  So we do a lot of those things.

I was worried that there may be a medical cause too.  She has been peeing in her bed again a lot at nap time and at night, which is something she hasn't done for a long time.  We were worried maybe she has a bladder infection or something.  She has also taken to sleeping a lot more, she takes her nap every day and says shes tired and wants to take a nap more frequently.   I guess we'll figure out what's going on eventually.

Until then, we will still have a good summer and hopefully we can all make it through this none the worse for the wear.