Although my daughter is only two and a half I have indeed noticed her very strong personality.  It is definitely a battle of wills in our household right now, and I am exasperated.  Although she is very pleasant, if ANYTHING is not on her terms, then it does not happen.  I find myself conning, negotiating, offering up options so that she can choose which way I would like for her to do something, etc.  She even bosses her 4 year old sister around, asking her to do things for her.  I do notice that there are extremes with her though, she is either strong willed, or extremely loving, or throwing a tantrum, etc.  Sometimes when walking her to the car from school she will lay down in the crosswalk if I won’t pick her up!  Of course, her doing that now has become a game to her, and I notice daily that I am getting a little farther across that walk before it dawns on her to ask me to pick her up, I say no...walk, and then she lays down in the road.  I suppose in a week or so we will have made it to the other side of the street before she lays down.  :)  The thing I find most odd is that her teacher says she is a "model student", which of course almost bowled me over.  She is quiet in class, polite, loving, and mindful of her friends.  I could not believe the teacher was talking about the same child I was.  So, I figure she is in her T-two’s (as I hate to call them), and the two’s are FULL BLOWN  in her case.  My four year old never made a peep, never went through any tantrums...NOTHING.  So of course Christi’s behaviour is like treading new water.  I would suppose in my case that her behaviour has been learned by us appeasing her so that she will stop screaming at the top of her lungs.  She knows if she yells or persists long enough (and God knows she knows this) we will give in.  Our nerves are shot as she is very loud.  She is just "built" loud, has always been loud.  Even the nurses in the NICU would not allow us to pick her up if she were sleeping because of how loud she was.  I’m not talking normal loud, I am talking LOUD without an effort.  Once she realizes the gift she holds in her ability to belt out anything with ease from her diapragm she will become a great singer!  :)  Although she is growing out of her "two’s", there is no doubt that we are in for a ride with her STRONG personality.

K