"They" say you shouldn't label your child. Whatever. I understand why but ya know what... screw that. My daughter is spirited. She's not broken. She's not a special-needs child. But she is definitely special.
My daughter is spirited. She has more energy than you can ever dream of. She laughs more, talks more, runs more, plays more. She also gets angry more, frustrated more, screams more, more strong-willed. It's SO hard. Sometimes, many times, you throw your hands in the air. You just want to FIX the problem. Why can't you just chill out? What are you throwing a fit about now? Why can't you just listen? Why why why?
My daughter is spirited. She doesn't need to be fixed. She's not broken. She's Ava. My Ava. My daughter. My love. She is who she is and that's enough for me.
Having two four-day weekends in a row proved that we can't keep doing what we are doing. It's not working. She won't make it to her teen years at this rate. I've got to get a grip on understanding her personality. The power struggles leave us all exhausted. You can tell me that all kids are this way. No they aren't, they most definitely are not. Not like this. You can also tell me it's how we raise her... no because Ava and EZ are polar opposites, so that's not it.
No one believed me when I told them that Ava use to throw HOURS worth of tantrums. Yes. Hours. She use to bite herself out of frustration. Bang her head on the floor to the point where she would have bruises. She would pull her hair out where she would have bloody bits from pulling so hard. She almost NEVER napped. Started talking at a very early age with an insane memory. On a scale of 1-10 of intensity, Ava's a 15. Yeah we totally wondered what we were doing wrong or if she needs help that we can't provide. As it turns out... she's just spirited.
We are all just so exhausted. We love her too much to not try.
Serenity now.
