Day 10 : Kids These Days

I'm still really annoyed with the internet connection problem, and the fact that I didn't have one yesterday. Granted I only wrote a short post because I had a very full day, still. There's this thing I'm trying to do here.

Anyway, Squido got droppd off at nine and we shortly thereafter went to my friend Brit's house. Brit has a daughter about the same age as Squido and they have been playing together at least once a month since they were babies, but evidently in the last month or so, Squido has lost her ability to share. Scratch that. She's lost her ability to be sweet, reasonable, kind, and good. They fought most of the day, which I wasn't surprised about at all. I was just surprised that Squido actually let me hold Brit's baby, a two month old boy! I was sure Squido would be completely jealous and not let me get near him, but my god, she actually gave me a break for two seconds and excused the fact I was holding another child. Thought the day would never come.

However, the day went completely downhill from there. Squido walked through our door after leaving Brits, and immediatley went into meltdown mode, and every little thing she said came out as a whine for the rest of the night. That's right, from about 3pm til now, 8pm, whine whine cry cry whine scream cry tantrum whine scream scream scream cry whine whine. You get the idea? Is this normal? Moms out there, please answer me! Is it normal for a 3.5 year old girl do nothing but argue and cry and whine FOR NO REASON? Or is my child broken. I just want to find the right people to go to, raise my hand and say: "I'm sorry, there must be some mistake. I thought this was a child, but evidently it's a whine-demon." Remember a few posts ago when I told you how Squido's vocabulary was exploding and she knew all sorts of new big words and could use them correctly? Today I heard (multiple times) "I DON'T LIKE YOU ANYMORE, MOMMY!!" And yes, caps were required, because she screamed it at me. Every single time.

I think it's that time I leave my history books behind and go hardcore into parenting books until I find a way to figure her out. I am not sure how much longer either of us can live in the misery that is her moods. I really hate that I feel like resorting to parenting-help books to figure out how to raise my child, but there are no bones being thrown at me here, it's all just a guessing game and all my guesses are wrong.

Does anyone have any books or articles you could recommend to me to help me out with dealing with a willful, disobediant 3.5 year old? Or, could you start off by telling me whether at 3.5 years of age I should expect even a little bit of obedience, of listening to what I tell her and having her do it?

Please. Help. Me.