Dd is driving me absolutely up the wall, particularly at nap and bed time. She turns four in April. Part of the problem is that she is likely dropping the nap and the transition is throwing sleep out of whack. I am doing what I can to get her enough sleep (put her to bed at 6:15 last night when she didn't nap yesterday).
But I need some help with her behavior. She is just generally as uncooperative as possible. We have a very set routine with a couple of built in opportunities for her to make choices (which toothpaste, which stuffed animals, which book, song or story)
She won't walk to the bathroom so we play various games to get there--train, airplane, frog, whatever it takes. But some days even the games are a fail and I end up carrying her there screaming n
Then she fake laughs and twists and makes brushing her teeth an ordeal. I let her choose the toothpaste. I let her have a turn brushing. I pretend to hunt for fairies or whatever she wants me to hunt for. She knows if she doesn't cooperate eventually I will lay her down and force the toothbrushing. She still makes it difficult every time.
Then she insists loudly that she doesn't need to go potty but always pees when I pull her pants down and sit her on the potty and if I let her skip ends up calling to me to go potty later.
She frequently randomly screeches during all of this even though I have repeatedly told her she is hurting my ears and asked her to use an indoor voice.
She refuses to stand still to get a diaper on instead climbing on her chair or sitting or running in circles.
Anyway, you get the gist of it. So I am thinking maybe she is old enough for rewards of some kind? Ds was too anxious for rewards related to bedtime--he just freaked out that he might not earn it and behaved even worse. So I'm not sure how to structure this. Some kind of chart? One star for each step of the way? Or one for getting ready nicely? She's not good at delayed gratification at all so I'm not sure how long she can have the prize delayed and have it work at all. What kinds of prizes? Her best currency is sweet things and iPad time, but I'm reluctant to do those on a regular basis (the iPad is super hard to take away when time is up so I feel like I would just be creating a different behavior problem).
Thanks for any help or even just hugs!
Catherine