I’m not quite sure who coined the term “Terrible Two’s” but I really think it should be “Terrible Sixteen Months.” To say this month has been tough would be an understatement. You’ve reached a point when you know what you want but you don’t have the vocabulary yet so you go around pointing and screaming/crying. We say, “do you want water?” You shake your head yes. We fill up your cup with fresh water and hand it to you then you start shaking your head no and crying because, again, we have disappointed you with the wrong item. I think you may have the wrong idea what water means . . .
Full on tamper tantrums are in full effect. You do this absolutely adorable thing when I need to take something out of your hand, you scream at octaves that quite honestly, scare the dust mites right off the beds – ADORABLE! You definitely don’t discriminate as to where these tantrums take place. Take for instance today, we were at Barnes & Noble and you were holding a book all throughout the store, admiring the photos and quietly studying the book from front to back. It comes time to pay for the item and I gently remove the item from your little hands to hand to the cashier. I swear to you, your eyes turned red with fury and you let out the most blood curdling scream which made everyone stop what they were doing to turn in our direction. The cashier quickly scans the item and says “maybe you should give this back to her.” Perhaps you’re right lady – let’s give the demonic troll whatever she wants before she swallows us whole. I decided I would let you run around the shopping center because they have a huge courtyard and I figured there isn’t a whole lot you can get into while you’re there and you obviously had some energy to burn. I really must be as naive as first parents come because you could find your path of destruction everywhere as freshly planted flowers are crushed at your hand and left to die all over the courtyard. It’s not even that I’m letting you do this – seriously, as I’m responding to the first incident, you’re already 2 planter boxes down. You’re seriously like a combination of Pig-Pen from Peanuts, the tasmanian devil & Oscar the Grouch.
It has definitely been a difficult month as we’re still both learning how to communicate with each other but you’ve had some positive moments as well. I don’t want you to think you’re a full on burden – a partial burden yes but full on burden is a little heavy. While putting books away in the new bookshelves in the playroom/loft, you walked around the room picking up random objects and placing them in the shelves. After watching me dust, you proceed to pick up the dust rag and go back and catch any spots that I missed. I showed you how to rock your baby while singing lullabies and you proceeded to rock your dog figurines and little people while singing a little ditty.
I did take you to your first Gymboree class and you should acknowledge that I’m doing this solely for you. I’ve come to recognize that you need a little more interaction with other children and this was the only reasonable solution I could think of. I’m enduring cheesy singing, fake smiles, and butt loads of children for you. The Gymboree class is set up like a colorful insane asylum. Everything is padded for your protection but you still managed to find the one piece of the slide that wasn’t padded and you caught the corner of your head – of course. With all of these climbing apparatuses, tubes, mats and plethora of baby gadgets, you decide to carry one ball and walk around the class just observing. I walked away thinking, wow, my child is very cautious and reserved. As soon as we got home, you started climbing everything. I actually think you were taking notes at the class as to how you could apply these climbing tactics at home. You’re a tricky one!
I am quite frankly, exhausted but I have to remind myself that these moments don’t last forever. We are in the middle of a little bit of a road bump but I’m hoping we can get through this with all of our hair and no drinking or drug abuse issues. I’m optimistic that the coming months will get better. I think one of the contributing factors is we’ve been holed up in the house with all the rain. Your father and I finally started work on the playroom just to give you new scenery. We’ll see, if you don’t behave, I’m turning the playroom into my liquor cabinet and no, you can’t have any!
Love,
Momma