The Terrific Twos

Reasons why they call it the Terrible Twos: Scene One Olivia: (whining) Want cheese! Cheeese!! Mom: Okay. Hang on. (1 minute later after cutting a slice of cheese)Here you go, Sweetie. Here's some cheese. Olivia: (grabs cheese, throws it and yells) No cheese! No like cheese! Scene Two Olivia: (whining) Hug! Hug! Mom: Okay. Let me put Sophia down. (Mom picks up and hugs Olivia) Olivia: No hug! Want down! No hugs! Scene 3 Olivia: (whining) Poopy! Poopy diaper!!! Mom: Oh. Let's go change your diaper. (picking up Olivia) Olivia: (screaming and squirming to get free) No diaper! No diaper! Diaper dry! No poopy! Now, don't get me wrong. Olivia is a great kid. Both our children, overall, have been very easy. Some people don't even believe me when I tell them that, at times, Olivia can be very challenging because she's so well behaved with others, but it's true. Sometimes she really puts Yale and I through the ringer. I guess it's just part of being 2. To me, it seems like she's hormonal, but her doctor says she's not (Yes, I asked the doctor if 2-year-olds have hormonal surges that affect them emotionally). She has such extreme mood swings that she reminds me of me when I was pregnant. One minute she's running across the room to give me an unsolicited hug, and the next minute, for no apparent reason, she's hollering at me like I'm the devil. I guess this is where the psychological challenges of parenting begins. On a more positive note... Olivia has started to become more interested in letters. Her favorite letter at the moment is R. She can also identify Q, A, H, P and sometimes K. I get a kick out of it when we're out and about and she says, "That's R". Her interest in letters took off when Grandma and Grandpa Kaul gave her these magnetic letters that you put in this little box-shaped doohickey and the doohickey sings a little song to go with the letter. Like for R it sings, "R. R says rrr. Every letter makes a sound, and R says rrrr." As you can imagine, Yale and I sing that song in our sleep, but she loves it so it's worth it. She even has this little twirling dance that she does when she hears the song. Sophia continues to melt our hearts. She is really quite adorable. I'm sad to report that her hair is no longer dark, like mine. Instead it is quite blond and very cute. We got the girls' pictures taken at Sears recently. Sophia's turned out so cute. There's one with her in just a diaper, kicking up her legs. It really captures all of her adorable chub rolls, which as I say every time, I absolutely love! She's not the super sleeper she used to be. She is now sleeping in the crib (Yes, that means Olivia has formally graduated to a big bed. Yea!). She seems to be having a hard time getting used to it because when she rolls over she either hits her head on the bars or her leg or arm gets stuck between the bars. We don't have a crib bumper because the SIDS people say they can be dangerous, but I recently ordered a "breathable" bumper that is supposed to be safe. Hopefully that will help us all get more sleep!