My Child, The Problem Solver

Ya know, four year olds have all the answers.  Or should I say, four year olds have an answer for everything.  Everything. And they somehow need to always have the last word.  Always. And if you even attempt to explain something to them, they will just tell you they already know what you're going to say.  And if you tell them to stop interrupting because you're trying to explain something to them, they just tell you to talk...Go ahead, talk Mommy, go ahead, I'm listening. And then you're left scratching your head because now you're confused and can't remember which step in this whole process you were at.  It's an interesting battle, the battle of wills and power.

But that's not really where I'm going with any of this.  I'm attempting to tell you how children have an answer for everything...at least mine does. She's got some pretty amazing questions as well.  But a lot of the time I don't have the answers.  But she does.

This week I asked Isis what she would like for dinner.  I don't even know why I ask because she has two answers only to this question.  Mac and cheese or pizza.  That particular night she picked mac and cheese.  I told her we could probably do that.  Then I remembered our milk was almost gone.  And when I brought this to her attention, she paused, reflected, and said very matter of factly, You could pump.

Right about now you may be dry heaving at the thought of homemade mac and cheese made with two cups of freshly pumped breastmilk.  But I have to tell you, it really doesn't taste that different.  What I also have to tell you is that we didn't really make mammary mac n cheese.

I love how she is learning to dissect things and solve problems and create very logical, thoughtful solutions.  Raising a very strong willed four year old girl with alot of compulsions is a tough job.  The new catch phrase around our house is, how can YOU solve this problem Isis? It let's her take ownership in the solution and also causes her to complain less if she's forced to fix it.  Well she fixed the dinner problem that night.  Guess that one bit me right in the ass.