Miss B and the multiple personalities.

I survived the first two children without the colorful stories that I've often heard other parents share.  My boys never took their diapers off in their cribs.  My boys never climbed on top of furniture before they could really walk.  My boys never took their clothes off and danced around the backyard.  They didn't color on walls or furniture and certainly not their own bodies.  My third kid has done all of the above and more, and many of these on a regular basis.

Miss B is an angel at school.  She loves being there, she loves her friends and she loves her teachers.  The teachers comment all the time about how she is always smiling with her cute dimples.  She kisses every adult upon greeting and goodbye (as is the custom here in Belgium) - even Luke's soccer coach.  But then she will run away from me in the parking lot, flashing those two cute dimples, taunting me.  Her sparkly eyes say: "Chase me...chase me....what do you mean walk with you in the parking lot?  Are you kidding?  This is so much more fun!"

She also has these Jeckle and Hyde episodes where she flies into a rage with little or no notice.  (Ok, so the notice is usually me saying no to something - like candy before dinner.  I know, I'm such a horrible parent.)     This episode almost always involves her throwing her little body on the floor and kicking, or hitting at me, or sometimes even trying to bite.  What is that all about??  My boys never did that!  Is this a girl thing?

As near as I can tell, it's all tied to emotions with some aggravating factors.  I can almost see and/or predict when a Jeckle and Hyde moment is going to happen.  The aggravating factors are usually hunger and fatigue.  And the moment almost always comes when she really, really wants something (like the aforementioned candy.)  Or if she really wants to wear a certain item, like a tutu or tiara.   If she thinks I'm not going to let her, she won't even wait for the words to come out of my mouth.  She just gets really mad, really fast.  Hmm.  Irrationally jumping to conclusions.  Doesn't sound at all like anyone I know.  There is a reason she is my daughter.

We are working on slowing down.  Taking deep breathes.  Using our words to talk through situations without screaming and carrying on.  But it's exhausting and comes with collateral damage - I have more than one healing bite mark to prove it.  My intuition and experience tells me this is a phase and it too shall pass.  I just hope it passes before the babysitter that lives next door is frightened off by the blood curdling screams and fits that I'm sure carry through the shared wall, because I could really use a grown-up night out.