Where's the sweetness gone to?

I am really struggling with Cameryn right now. She has suddenly just... I don't even know how to put it. I know no kid wants to hear no but she used to not take it so badly like she does now. She can be so sweet and nice and funny and then you tell her no to something and it's a little devil popping out and taking her place. She glares at me and screams and throws things and tells me she doesn't like me anymore. She throws the biggest fits I've ever seen and all I feel I can do is take her up to her room for a timeout. She screams while she's up there and I hear lots of banging and crashing. Sometimes she comes out into the hallway to scream down the stairs and I go back up put her back in her room and tell her she's not allowed to open the door unless she is quiet and calmed down.

I know it's her testing her boundaries and limits with me but I just wish that it wasn't everyday! I miss my sweet little girl who was so nice to her brother. Now it's just a back and forth with them too often for me. Cameryn takes a toy from Luke, Luke pinches her, she hits him, he hits back, she cries and pushes him, he cries and bites her wherever he reaches first. It's the most annoying thing. It's impossible for me to take showers during the day anymore cuz I'm afraid I'll come out of the shower and one of them will be bleeding or something. Cameryn doesn't always instigate it cuz Luke is older now and tries to take stuff from her as well.

Of course they still have their really nice moments with each other and they still get along most of the time, but it's seems more and more that I have to breaks up their squabbles. Cameryn is just a very very very very very stubborn girl. I think I have something over her so she'll cave in but no she comes out telling me, "okay". I've stopped trying that now and just take her up to her room. That always works (so far).

Especially with meal times. She has been sneaking snacks while I'm doing things and then doesn't want to eat any of her meals. Mike and I got fed up and hid or got rid of all the snacks. Her and Luke both like snacking way too much (what kid doesn't) so I've had enough. I'm not going to make dinner 3 different times with 3 different things. Mike and I are not a restaurant. Cameryn either eats what we give her or she goes to her room where she screams for the whole 3-5 minutes of time out and says she wants to eat, she's hungry. I calmly open the door and talk to her for a minute to explain why she's up here then take her downstairs where she usually will start eating her dinner. The other night though, that didn't work because she had snacked for what seemed like all day. I would find her eating a string cheese, then with some crackers or asking me for fruit snacks and cheetos. She gets out the popsicles or eats the fruit in the fridge. Of course I know that she's hungry cuz she didn't eat her breakfast or lunch that I made her that she asked for.

Anyways, the other night we were having leftovers and Cameryn was crying that she wanted something else which we said no to. She sat there for I don't know how long and then I took her upstairs then brought her back down. She took the smallest bite possible and then cried that she was done. I knew she probably wasn't hungry because she had been eating Goldfish all afternoon from my bowl, Luke's bowl and her own. She spent the rest of the night in her pj's in her room while we played with Luke and gave him a bath.

I hope that with no more snacks that this will stop soon and she will revert back to my good little princess Cameryn but it feels like it's been forever (when it's only a recent thing actually). I have been allowing one snack that the three of us eat together on the front porch outside after Luke wakes up. Yesterday it was the cherries that I bought at the store and Cameryn and I were spitting the seeds and seeing how far we could get them. She was just using her tongue with hilarious results and the day went really well. I think she just has too much sugar and she gets mean after it wears off. That stuff never really affected me (still doesn't and neither does caffeine). Anyways, I went to see a movie with my friend last night and Mike fed the kids and put them to bed. He said that they both ate every scrape of food on their dinner plates (nothing new for Luke) and were really good. This no snack policy seems to be working already!!

I am just going to have them be outside constantly cuz that seems to help them get along better. I am sooooooooooooooo glad that it's warmer now too. I don't know what I would have done if Cameryn started this attitude thing during the cold winter. But most of the winter all I dealt with was this:

and this:

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