Phase

We are going through a bad phase with Maria, wherein she screams and yells her way through most of the day if things don't go exactly her way.  I keep thinking, really?  Terrible Fours?  Sometimes I find myself afraid that this is actually how she is and I'm worried that no one is going to like her!  Two days this week we were at Marta's house - one time Marta took her home with her after swimming and I went to get her FOUR HOURS after she got there and one time we went over and spent the day and both times she FLIPPED out.  The first time was the worst, she screamed and yelled and fought with me so badly that Marta had to carry the baby out.  She wouldn't get in her carseat and refused to get off the floor.  So I told her FINE, but if we get into a car accident and you fly out the window, don't come crying to me!  It's not my finest parenting moment, but I don't care.  I have fought with Anthony PLENTY about getting in his car seat, I have dealt with his tantrums for two and a half years so Maria is going to have to learn the hard way!

Yesterday morning she woke up and came in our room, laid down in our bed, and then Veronica dared to come in and Maria started HOWLING, she was screaming and screaming, so loudly that she woke up the baby and Anthony.  I didn't care so much about the baby because she woke up fine, but Anthony was really freaked out.  I was freaked out too - I can't take all that screaming UPON WAKING, what the hell?

This morning she got mad because we wouldn't let her eat her breakfast, (which she ordered like this:  "I want crackers and drinking applesauce and water, cold, with ice".  It's like living with Joan Crawford.) anywhere but the kitchen and she was furious.  I was washing bottles and getting one ready for Felicity, who was shrieking away in her high chair and Maria came in, yelling again, screaming and furious.  So I took the envelope of applesauce and chucked it on the table and it went everywhere.  Ugh.  I am not proud of this behavior!  It's just - it's hard to work with someone like this, day in and day out.  She stays up late and wakes up early and sometimes literally wraps herself around my leg when I am trying to walk.  She screams and yells and THREATENS me (if I put her in her room, she yells "when I get out of here I am going to BITE YOU Mommy!).

So.  I am hoping it's a phase.  Because I really love Maria and I really like her a LARGE PART of the time.  But that small part, where she is so bossy and screamy and mean and horrible, feels like a lot.