For us, 3 is the new 2. Lily turned into a min-tyrant as 3 approached and Ava is apparently going to be no different. Her new thing is to threaten; we call her “the terrorist.”  She’s real calm and just tells you matter-of-fact what is going to happen if you don’t do as she says. The other day she was painting and wouldn’t move to her seat for dinner, and we took something or did something that upset her. Next thing we know, she’s standing next to her chair with the paint brush saying “if you don’t give me that back, I’m going to paint on this chair.” Julie and I both thought it was absolutely hilarious and of course now she does it all the time.

Unfortunately, other times the tyrant act is not so fun. She struggles with correction so you can pretty much guarantee that if you correct her on something she’s going to start pouting and that’ll quickly erupt into a full blown meltdown if she’s even the slightest bit tired and/or hungry.