Girl Child

As the mother of three children I know very well how kids, from the same genetic pool, raised by the same parents with the same rules and experiences, can be very VERY different from each other. Dude, in general is a pretty mellow kid and when there is something bothering him he'll speak up. Mischief is the most loving nutter you ever met. They are boys, they are pretty basic, straight forward and relatively easy to figure out. Relative to Crafty, especially.

I am at a loss with that girl. I know there are some very basic differences between raising a boy child and raising a girl child but seriously? Seriously? (Sorry I've been doing a Grey's Anatomy marathon for a couple of weeks and I'm kind of stuck, seriously) The emotional highs and lows, the pouting and silent treatment, the sudden outbursts of tears followed by a deep sigh and a smile is beginning to make me think she's crazy. Seriously.

She has always been a more emotional child than either of the boys. We used to joke about her daily PNC, post-nap cry. Everyday from infancy until the day she stopped napping, she would cry for no apparent reason within an hour of waking up from her nap. It was her PNC, her guaranteed daily emotional release. Her PNC was fine, I became used to it and I was prepared for it, but the unpredictable emotional outburst that she's experiencing now are like grenades going off at a garden party. Shocking, disturbing and completely unexpected.

We are going through our day, making jokes, running errands, hanging out, whatever then all of a sudden out of nowhere Crafty is on the verge of a meltdown. What the heck?! And once it starts there is really no way to stop it. We just have to let her go, get it out of her system, reboot and start all over again. I am beginning to recognize that signs the Emotional Reboot coming but poor Mr. Awesome is blindsided every time. She can go from Miss Normal to Miss Crazy Person in the blink of an eye, but once she's done she's fine for days. Go figure?

Last night, I was on my way out to a meeting when Crafty burst into tears. I sat down with her and tried to get to the bottom of what was going on. It seems that she had spent the day watching super hero movies, playing 'police and bad guys' with the Playmobile and building a spaceship with Mischief when all she really wanted to do was play Barbies for a while. The catch was that she didn't want to play Barbies alone and the boys wouldn't play with her.

We talked about possible solutions to this problem and just when I thought we were in the clear she burst into tears again. I was on the verge of being seriously late for my meeting and my patience was wearing thin.

"Seriously, you need to stop this and tell me, what do you think is a good solution?" I said.

"There's only one thing that will make this better," she sniffled.

"What? What is it, I'm open to suggestions because these breakdowns are not working for me." I said, standing and putting on my coat.

"I need a sister!"

"Um, yeah, okay. You need to discuss that with daddy. I'll see you when I get home." I kissed her and ran out the door ... laughing.

All I need is TWO of them!