She constantly has an agenda which she quizzes us about incessantly. If we are remotely tired, over-worked, saturated and on the back foot with no fixed plans of our own, this can be all day.
She has an unnaturally loud voice and uses it a lot. Was at soft play today and she was the one barking orders and orchestrating the play at high volume whilst the other kids were just getting on with their own thing - having fun and making noise, but not at that reverberate-around-your-head volume.
She is adept at inviting the whole street into our back garden.
She cannot sit still or concentrate on much for long.
She has always, even from baby days, needed constant adult interaction so even when playing with friends outside is in and out every few minutes to update us or ask us irrelevant questions.
At the moment she is going through a stage of not listening to any form of request from us and doing her own sweet thing which is infuriating. Getting into PJs at night can take 6-10 times of asking, regardless of sanctions.
The only quiet time is when the TV is on, which has an unnatural anaesthetic effect on her. She is agog. So we all live for TV time at 4pm.
I guess I am in that worn down state where my fuse is spent.
What do the rest of you do to cope? Or do I have a particularly demanding 4yo? Or maybe she is a wee lamb and I should count my lucky stars...