Super-Emotional Four-Year-Old?

[greenbeanmama]

My son just turned four.  As a baby, he was very high needs (nursed every hour and half around the clock, didn't sleep through the night until two years, didn't handle being separated from me very well at all, etc).  He's a sensitive child, quite bright, articulate, and attached.  He's also a bit persnickity about how things need to be (shoes go on the middle shelf, we can't made beds until after breakfast, that sort of thing).  He doesn't usually take jokes/pretending well unless he initiates them.

He's always been pretty emotional - cries easily, needs a lot of reassurance and snuggles throughout the day.  Lately though, he's been REALLY emotional.  Like, getting really upset over the smallest of things.  For example, he does not like peas, but because we've been talking about nutrition, he wanted them with dinner one night.  But then he started crying because they were "cute little peas" and if he ate them he "would miss them so much."  I comforted him and reminded him about nutrition absorption, so the peas would help build him a stronger body.  He was fine with that and then ate all three of them.

Today we took down our Christmas tree and set it by the curb for the recycling truck.  Five minutes later, he was sobbing in my arms.  He would miss the tree when it was gone and went through the wood chipper.  After explaining that Christmas trees can't stay forever in people's homes, and that we'd have another one next year, he was no calmer.  So I pretended that our Christmas tree was looking forward to seeing his friends, and went into a little monologue about a blue spruce, white pine, and cedar tree - and that seemed to help for the time being.  He still got a bit sad every time he looked out the window though.

I'm trying to pinpoint any major changes that would be affecting him (other than our routine being off because of Thanksgiving and then Christmas - it takes about a week of "detox" every time we visit the grandparents).  But I can't think of anything that would be affecting him this strongly.  Is it just a phase and he'll calm down soon?  Or should I be looking for an underlying cause that would be making my son so very emotional?

[crowcaw]

I have very sensitive 5 yo twin girls and they had the same reaction to taking our tree down last year.  They kept branches of it but still cried about it sporadically for days.  My girls have always been emotional and sensitive though so I don't take tears and sadness about things like this for anything other than manifestations of that.  If it's out of character for your ds, then maybe there's something more to it, but since you say he's always been emotional my guess would be it's a reaction to the end of the tree and all that it represents to him.

We haven't taken our tree down yet this year and from comments already made, we're going to have a bit of emotion again.

By the way, last year we told the girls that the mulch from the tree would be used to help other trees to grow so it was never totally gone and it seemed to help a little.   This year they remembered and just knew that part of last year's tree was growing in this year's tree.

[greenbeanmama]

Yeah, it wasn't so much the tree incident in and of itself, but that sort of thing has been happening MUCH more frequently over the past two weeks. My son got sick last night (fever, throwing p, etc), so I'm wondering if he's just been trying to fight something off for a bit and it finally caught up with him.

[K1329]

My ds just turned 4. I remember reading somewhere that boys go through a major hormonal change around their 4th year and plan to do some research and/or try to find the article I read again. Maybe someone has some more info regarding this... but, it could just be some age-related/awareness changes triggering his episodes. My ds just seemed to realize that he could actually get lost and has mentioned it several times. He said when he learns to drive, what if he gets lost and can't find his way home? lol Cute, but it was a real concern for him.  If I find the article or any more info on boys and hormonal changes around 4, I'll repost.