It's hard to be Four: the life of Ruby

We have exhausted all our patients and behavior books when it comes to dealing with a four year old, threes were a nightmare but fours seem to have their own madness.

When it comes to behavioral charts Ruby doesn't like to be at the bottom, even at school she is manipulating her way to the top... they are starting to see right thru her too!
We have a had a behavioral chart in our kitchen for quite some time now and it worked for awhile but then she messed more with placing Trey on all the appropriate behavior spots then really worrying if she was below good or above good for the day.
So, I decided to go back to my old method of stickers on the calendar... this time instead of it being a potty calendar it is now a "no-fit" calendar. 

 

If she had a good day then at the end of the day right before bed she was allowed to put a sticker on that day, and if she had a bad day she would get a red X and not be allowed to put a sticker on.  Then at the end of the week we would do something fun or she could get a item of her choose and then at the end of the month we would do one BIG thing.  Well, as you can see her month started out great, there were a couple touch 'n go days but we were able to quickly resolve issues do to the fear of the red X. 

 

Week 3 wasn't the best week, it resulted in her first red X, which she was not at all happy about.

Which brings me to a great story:  Eric takes the girls to school and the day of the red X he was walking with Ruby to her room and she stopped him and asked if they could "talk.". She asked how she can get rid of the red X?  He then explained what happened and why she got it, and then told her to remember how sad she was that she got it and try not to get it again.  Well, that evening she came home and took all her stuff to her room (like normal) but then stayed in her room longer than normal so Eric went in to check on her.  He asked her what she was doing and she said that she "took care of the X." He looked at the calendar and it was wet with a more pink X now.  She had used water and a wash cloth and wiped the red X as much as she could to make it look like it no longer existed.  Needless to say she kept the red X and also go another one that week, but then finished strong the last week.  We feel that it is working but we are also way to lenient and she probably really should have had a few more but if the fits aren't lasting as long then we feel like we are at least making progress, but this little girl is the strongest willed child I have ever me!!!  Lord help us!!! 

 

Because she had a good month, Eric took her to SkyZone and they had a blast... she loved it.  Even though she was really supposed to go to Frozen on Ice but because of the weather that didn't happen.  I thought telling her that we weren't going was going to be a disaster but she actually took it really good and was perfectly fine with the alternative.