Ramblings of a Mom to a Toddler

I don't think anyone prepares you for how difficult it is to raise a toddler, especially a two year old. Maybe not difficult, but what a rollercoaster it is.

Paige has gotten VERRRRYYY sassy within the past couple of weeks. She's been telling me "stop it mama" "no mama" and the real kicker "shut up mama" She's also been pushing me and swatting me. I know she got the shut up from us telling Duke to shut up, so we've been working on "be quiet" She's been whining and repeating things OVER and OVER! Like today "dada home soon?" and I say "dada will be home tonight around suppertime" and then ever since it's "dada home soon? dada home night" over and over! It gets a little old. But at the same time, she is so sweet, and just wants to make me happy. And she's talking more and more! I walked into her room this morning, yawning and she says "mama tired" and I said, yes mama's tired. I was like, how did you know I was tired? and how do you know what tired means? Crazy!

Lately, she's been SO into books, she carries them everywhere and she has to have at least 10 of them in her crib whenever she sleeps. After I read her a book, she takes it, opens it up and says the words on that certain page. It's unreal! She has SUCH a good memory. The other night, she wouldn't listen to me, so I told her no books before bed. She grabbed Guess How Much I Love You and wanted me to read it and I said, no you didn't listen to mama earlier. She raised a huge fuss, but took it to bed with her. The next morning I walked into her room, she grabs the book and says "mama read it?" I said yes, I'll read it!

I need to start disciplining her more, and my therapist said that we could try time outs with her. She seems young for it, but my sitter agreed. I'm such a softie, it's going to break my heart the first few times I have to do it. This week, we've been working on getting her to walk in and out of our house and our sitter's house, and not be carried. She pitches a HUGE fit, but each day has gotten a little easier. I think we might start a sticker chart for walking without a fuss.

Meals have been interesting. She refuses to sit anywhere except my lap during meals, especially supper. But she'll actually eat something then, like the past few nights she's eaten pork chops and rice. She dawdles so bad, so I've started to tell her, you need to start eating in one more minute, or we're all done. It seems to be working pretty well. She's still refusing veggies though.

This week, she's done so many new things! She counts her jumps, it's so hilarious! She's had a diaper rash for a while so it hurts whenever we wipe her, and I've always said "I know, I know" so this week whenever I start to take her diaper off, she goes "I know I know I know I know I know!" And asking for Mike by saying "dada home soon?" that one breaks my heart, especially when I know he's not going to be home for a while.

In spite of all this, I love her more than I ever thought possible. I would die if anything happened to her. She brings so much joy, but sometimes so much pain too. She loves to give hugs and kisses, laugh, dance, and jump!

We're staying home this Memorial Day weekend, and are going to try to get a lot of yardwork done. It might hit 90 which is WAY too hot for me. It's 80 degrees right now and I can hardly stand it. I've been outside for all of 20 minutes today to hang clothes up and I come in the house sweating. It's too hot, too fast. 2 weekends ago, it was 45 and rainy and now it's 80 and sunny.