The other side of almost 4.

A lot of people talk about "the halfs" being the worst - for example, it's not the terrible twos, it's the terrible two-and-a-halfs.  Three is great, but three-and-a-half is hard.  Charlotte loosely follows that, but I would go so far as to say that it's not really every six months, but just every now and then we go through a really rough patch.  The benefit of having an almost 4 year old, and a blog, is that I can remind myself of how it happens and how we come through on the other side.

Another thing that gets talked about is how there's always a backslide before a growth spurt or intellectual leap.  Again, that's something we've seen for ourselves, too.  (I don't know what to call this "people say" thing - it's not quite an old wives' tale, or common knowledge, or whatever, but it's just a thing.  As the Dothraki would say, it's just "It is known.")  I'm hoping that Charlotte is building up to something, because here's what the last week has been like:

• At Gavin's birthday party this weekend, she had a really hard time understanding "No" and "Those are Gavin's presents."  She did fine with this at the last few birthday parties we went to, so it could be party fatigue, or something different.
• Charlotte has fallen on her face more in the last week than in the last 6 months.  
• Sleep issues.  She was up for 4 hours in the middle of the night last night, and up at 8:30 am this morning.
• Increased arguing and "talking back."

This is all a phase, this too shall pass, etc, etc.  It makes me feel better, though, to find a pattern and reassure myself that this is all going on with a purpose.  Charlotte's impulses are wacky because her body is changing or her brain is processing, and our girl will come out on the other end, in a month or so, and blow us away with what it means to be the parents of a four year old in pre-school.