Well, it's official... I have been fully inducted into the Terrible Two's by the President and Founder, MissE. Not a day goes by without at least 3 tanrums thrown for reasons we can't seem to understand. For example, last night, there were tears over her pink fork being the wash. This morning, there were tears because "I want mama toast" which was the same as what she had on her plate.
We also now have to repeat ourselves several times before the toddler selective hearing processes. You can just see their minds thinking "Hmm... I hear mama but I don't really want to listen. Let's see how long I can __(insert naughty behavior here)___ for".
And there's the smarty-pants talk. I don't think MissE means it and sometimes it makes us giggle a bit. For example, if we do what she asked us to, we get a "Good girl, mama" and if we are lucky enough, "Good listening mama".
MissE has now been moved to a 'big girl' bed. She loves that she can climb in and out of bed (I don't!). The first week was great! She stayed put until the morning then came into our room for cuddles and to ask for breakfast. Then came week two. We don't want to be woken up several times a night with "Wakey wakey!" We are currently walking her back to her room several times a night... so to be continued.
Next up is potty training. We seem to of gone backwards... and it was partially our fault. She wanted to train quite early, before 2. We were busy with work and didn't have the time to be consistant with her, but she was still happy to sit on her little potty when she had the chance... until the "No.2 Incident". MissE deposited her first number 2, saw what she just "did" then promptly burst into tears and has refused to sit on that particular potty ever since. It's laughable to us but apparently, very normal. Yesterday we had a breakthrough thanks to the "award" of getting stickers for her chart, but today it seems we've been doing a lot of cleaning up rather than awarding. We'll keep trying and at some point it will click into place, right?
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| What else is there to do but have a good catch-up! |
But saying that, there is also a lot of good about being TWO.
MissE has great verbal skills and speaks in sentences. I am now one of those parents that ask her what she did today at "school" (daycare) or what she had for lunch and she remembers! Yesterday she had "Pizza- ham, cheese and I don't like tomato". She heard Daddy telling a story about a Huntsman Spider in his car while driving and having to man-up to hit it. She has now adapted that as her own story and often re-tells it with "Eloise hit Itsy Bitsy (all spiders are Itsy Bitsy's of course). Yuck!"
She also loves to sing... and sing she does, non-stop. Her favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Itsy Bisty Spider, "Hokey Pokey", and "Happy Birthday". I should be somewhere between 106-113 if the number of times we've sung "Happy Birthday" to mama matches my actual age. MissE even makes up her own songs now, below is the "Jellyfish Song".
Kids Says the Darndest Things... MissE's sings he classic "Old Macdonald" with a twist.
She also made up one called "Hey Goodmorning" which is basically "hey goodmorning" repeated over and over, with a few "goodmorning friends" and "goodmorning Nancy" (her teacher at daycare) thrown in. She is also acquiring great taste in music. She LOVES her Bob Marley. Funnily enough, she always has. I listened to Bob Marley when I was pregnant with her and as a newborn, turning on Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions of Bob Marley would instantly settle her.
With the last days of summer upon us, we spend at least one day on the weekend at the beach. We recently "discovered" Greenwich Baths
http://www.greenwichbaths.com.au/ which is a great family beach. The beach is clean, there is SHADE, and the water is roped off so there are virtually no waves. MissE was happy to sit on the edge of the water and play in the "sandpit". There is a small cafe with the all important COFFEE, burgers/ sandwiches and gelato.
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| At Greenwich Baths |
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| Sandy kisses for Daddy |
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| The only way I'll stay put! |
And here's our little "ham" after a bath:
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| Baby Gaga |
