Where do you get those meek, mild children?

In the past few weeks, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I think Mike and I have officially become "those" type of people. You know the kind. The ones with the rowdy kids. Sigh...

As mentioned in a previous post, last week was our County Fair. We went several times, of course, and the girls got more confident with every trip. On Friday night, we could have given them some money and we're about 99% sure that they would have happily run off to the carnival without a single worry. WE would have worried, obviously, but they would have been totally oblivious to anything except the rides. In fact, we didn't even make it in the front gate that night before they had partnered up with another little girl that they know from the Day Care and they were off and running with Aubrielle!! LITERALLY running through the crowds of people while we were frantically trying to slow them down and get them to listen to us. Both girls were just so totally confident and comfortable in this moving mass of people.

And then, with our new bicycles, we have been riding in the evenings quite regularly. The girls ride in a little cart behind Mike. It was very warm yesterday, so many people were out on the rail trail enjoying an evening stroll/ride, which is where we also chose to ride. Of course, all these people seemed to be relaxed and leisurely and peaceful. And here we come!! The girls are yelling and laughing and making all kinds of racket in the cart. For awhile, we tried to keep telling them to lower their voices, but we reached a point that it seemed like we were making more noise telling them to be quiet than the amount of noise that they were making! So.....we gave up!! At least they were HAPPY and not fighting or crying!!

And on Sunday, we ended up in JCPenneys at the mall. Jennica took off!! We turned around and she was GONE!! Once again, totally confident in a completely strange place. We panicked, of course, and split up to find her. Mike found her looking at some things just totally unconcerned that we were out of sight! AAAHHH.

So I want to know---where do you get those kids that you see clinging to their parents' legs? And those kids that are so shy that they bury their faces if a stranger says "hello" to them? And those kids that walk across the street holding their parents' hand, or ride meekly in a shopping cart through a grocery store without trying to climb out??

Because we have FOUR freakin' kids and NOT ONE OF THEM has been meek and mild!!! At Dane and Grant's ages, their self-confidence is becoming a tremendous asset. But at ages 3 & 4, its a great big pain in the neck for us as parents!! I remember wanting to throttle the boys when they were toddlers for exactly the same behaviors that the girls are exhibiting now. What are we doing wrong??!!?? The girls have very strict rules and are consistently disciplined and the whole works, but you can't take a confident child and MAKE them afraid to leave your side!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that someday it will be a good thing. And I will have a lot of gray hair.