My daughter confuses me. On the one hand I don't think I've encountered a child who whines more than Kathrynn. It's like an art form to her, and one she happens to be REALLY good at. She's very demanding. Also it seems every time I leave the room she immediatly starts to torture Aiden. Some days I just sit and wonder what I did to deserve such an unruly grate-on-your-nerves sort of child.

But when we're out in public she amazes me. She's so outgoing, so assertive and self confident. She's six and she's an expert at flagging down a waiter at a restaurant and ordering exactly what she wants. We were at Outback for Shawn's birthday on Sunday and she said "excuse me" to our waitress as she passed by because she wanted a drink refill. No prompting by us, she didn't even tell us! She just did it. Yesterday we were at the grocery store and she had a conversation with the (stranger) lady in line in front of us for a good 10 minutes. She likes to go in the dollar store by herself while I wait outside. Pick out her own item, purchase it, and come back.

I'm so impressed by how outgoing she is. I don't know a lot of other kids like that. I don't think I was like that. Or if I was I quickly learned not to be.

The thing is I know that those two seemingly unrelated traits are just different manifestations of the same trait. The quality that makes her whiney and demanding (I don't know for sure about torturing her brother) at home, is the same quality that allows her to go out in the world and ask for what she needs.

I suppose the only real difference is that at home we don't always value that assertiveness as much as we do in public.

She's so honest too. It's amazing. And so full of questions!

We have the book 'It's Perfectly Normal'. I was keeping it on a shelf in the toyroom until the kids were old enough for it. The other day I noticed the book jacket on the ground and the book missing. I asked her about it. She told me it was up in her room under her dresser that she and the neighbor had been laughing at all the naked pictures. She went and got it for me and asked me to read it to her. Start to finish. She's fascinated. Shawn is appalled. lol

It's hard. I don't want to stifle her. Because all of those traits she has are fantastic and will really serve her well in the future. But right now, in my six year old, they can be a bit frustrating!