The three's might kill me

Sage is three and a half. And this age is, by far, the hardest yet. She is testing the limits pretty much every day and spends lots of time in time out lately. She has been refusing to listen, and when I ask her to do something, she hides from me. When I try to reason with her, get down on her level and give her two choices to choose from, she just ignores me. As in won't say one word. She will still sit in time out but doesn't sit quietly anymore. She bangs on the wall, kicks, screams. It's a nightmare. I'm not sure if Clint being downstairs is what has been causing it, but that's when it all started. Especially our nap/night time routine. She doesn't understand why daddy can't snuggle in the big bed, or why he's home during the day. Like today, when I finally convinced her it was nap time, she refused to give him a hug and kiss. Then the second we reach the top of the stairs, she FREAKS out because she wants to give him a kiss. So I tell her if she wants to she has to go down and up the stairs by herself. She screams. Kicks. I send her to her room with the lights off and she screams. Kicks. Finally calms down and I tell her she can either go to bed now with no kiss from daddy or she can go down by herself. So she goes down. Comes back up happy as a lark. On our way to her room decides she needs a drink. Obviously gotten good at prolonging nap time. I tell her we are in no way going back downstairs and that if she needs water she has to drink out of the faucet. She turns to me in disgust and says, "Oh mom. That is so yuck." So I tell her I have a cup she can use, which she does, and after taking a sip says, "Oh. That's not yuck!" And to bed she goes. Clint and I seriously can't get over how dramatic she is lately. If you look at her wrong, touch her wrong, talk to her wrong, she immediately starts crying. Her mood swings hop from hot to cold so fast it's not even funny. I think we are in for it with three girls. Besides driving me mad, she has been saying more funny things. Like:

After a fit the other night she went to bed sweaty and crying. After cooling down I laid her down and she said, "Man I'm really sweaty. I don't like being sweaty. But I will dry off and be ok because I'm a big tough girl."

When we brush her teeth at night, "Why don't you wait for me in the other room mom. I can do this all by myself because I'm a strong girl."

"Why is my finky (pinky) toe so small?"

At breakfast this morning "Hey mom, why don't we just talk to each other for a while." OK Sage, what do you want to talk about? "Well, did you know that I'm going to preschool in two days? Well, not really two days, but sometime." (she starts in two months but has been saying this for a while now.)

While trying to go the bathroom: "Mom. My poop is trying really hard to come out. But it keeps going up and and down and up and down in my body. I really need it to work!"


and a couple random pics from a spur of the moment photo shoot attempt to try to get a decent shot to use for a groupon canvas that was about to expire: