Dh has asked me to find out what other people´s 4 year olds are like. DS wakes up at 7am (only recently due to gro-alarm and lots of stickers to get him to stay in bed longer) raring to go. He is NEVER sleepy in the morning. From the word go his mouth starts moving and I swear he is silent for maybe an hour total a day allowing for (brief) moments when he gets absorbed in something else. He talks talks talks ALL THE TIME. Even friends who say their kids talk all the time come away saying "wow, he DOES talk a lot". he isn´t amazingly coordinated so has never been a physical kid but at 7am will be in full pirate garb wanting to sword fight, or jumping on dh and I, touching, pulling, grabbing, generally being in our faces and annoying.
Please, is this normal? We have a 3mo aswell and although he sleeps well sometimes we are just tired and it makes it harder to deal with. I am trying to be patient but as I said to dh this morning, I am NEVER. NEEEEEVER, going to want to play at 7am and ds HAS to learn that. Normally one of us ends up shouting at some point and I really hate shouting, he really is such a good, sweet kid with a lovely nature, but this aspect can be really hard to deal with.
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please tell me about your non-stop 4 year old! i need to know its all normal!
roundthehouses · 01/06/2011 09:01
We have a rule that we will "play" as long as we can stay in bed. We are also allowed to say no to playing, altho normally one of us will playa bit or there will be grumps! Also, no rough stuff on our bed- he can get on our bed with us but has to get off if being too rough.
DS tends to get up about 7, then we/he plays for between 30 minutes and an hour before we get up and go down for breakfast. Luckily once downstairs he knows he has to play alone as I AM BUSY GETTING BREAKFAST. He is really good at doing this (often draws), so if there are any problems upstairs we get downstairs quick! DD is 2.5 and she fits in well with this routine too now and they play/kill each other a bit more now too 
.
Think you can get him to play a bit more on his own (sometimes we get "shows" at 7am (groan)- luckily not much input needed! You just have to introduce the idea gradually.
NOrmal, normal, normal.
It is bloody knackering.
Only thing keeping me sane is pre-school and the promise of Big School in August. 
He is up at 6 or 7 and he is ON.
I have a non-sleeping 1 yr old too.
I ama woman on the edge, I tell you. 
I have 4 yr old twins. They NEVER stop. They're nearly 5 actually, so they're in school already but their day (school or otherwise) is mad activity and chatter from when they get up (7ish on a school day, later (if we're lucky) at the weekend) til they fall exhausted into bed between 6.45 and 7 in the evening. I too am often greeted by the sight of a princess and a mermaid or a fairy and a nurse at breakfast time, even on school days. Every time we think they might start to slow down, they pick it up a gear. I have no idea how their wonderful teacher copes with a whole class full of them. THey were at a holiday playscheme today with two friends (also ID twins) and the play leader said "phew, they've tired ME out, no idea how they're still going" when I picked them up at 4.
So, yeah - totally normal.
well I´m glad to know I´m not alone at any rate though this morning ds2 slept til 8.30 and it was really revealing how ds1´s behaviour changed once the baby was up and needing fed/changed etc. we had such a nice quiet morning, me and ds doing drawing and writing etc all very calm and as soon as ds2 was up it was like someone had flipped a switch and it was all jumping and bouncing and screeching. I knew some of it was prob down to jealousy but was the first time we´d seen it so starkly. ho hum, this too shall pass and all that...
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