The Terrible TWO
It is difficult to believe that I (once again) have a two-year old. She’s my baby and I can not believe how fast time has gone. Lil C has been giving us a preview of the terrible two’s for the past few weeks. The answer to just about everything is an adament "no." She has suddenly decided she will only eat yellow foods and only if she REALLY feels like it; and the kid can pull hair. Man, can she pull hair!
She also says, "Mommy, Love you too!" about twenty times a day; and she gives neck hugs resembling a rear naked choke that can completely cut off circulation to the brain. She’s the great pretender and often imagines she’s eating an ear of corn or that one of her favorite stuffed animals, George, is playing hide and seek with her. She’s learned so much over the past year (including how to count to ten in Japanese), O.k. and a couple curse words. No one’s perfect.
She’s now putting herself to sleep in her own room (I forgot to mention that we moved her out of our room a few weeks ago, finally. Yes, I have attachment issues and possibly facing this being the last baby issues, so leave me alone.) Unlike most kids who want to hear "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or something along those lines, Lil C’s night time requests include the "pipate song" (pirate song).
The other night as I was singing "Yo ho, Yo ho, a pirate’s life for me. . . " she stopped me and said, "No Mommy, not dat pipate song. Beer song." We went to the Renaissance Faire a few weeks ago and went to the pirate show where they made the audience sing a chorus of "beer, beer, beer, beer; beer, beer, beer, beer." So, that’s her lullaby of choice now, a constant repetition of the word "beer" that puts her right to sleep. Apparently, it’s entirely possible to give birth to a little angel the first time around and sheer trouble the second time around.
Since her Daddy is once again on a business trip, we’re going to have a small dinner party tonight, complete with ice cream cake and the new wooden train set that she’s getting (because we have entirely too many princesses in this house).
If you’d like to read Lil C’s birth story, you can do so here. About 12 hours ago, two years ago, I was weathering contractions in the hallway and drooling on the floor during a particularly bad one. Don’t believe me? Go read.
Happy Birthday Lil C!
Pool Day
We are a little over a week away from Lil C’s second birthday. I have not, in any way, been pushing her to use the potty yet because I learned that lesson the hard way with Big I. She will go when she is ready to go. It’s practically my mantra. In fact, if you tell me that you think two-year olds should already be potty trained, I will probably stick my fingers in my ears and hum loudly. I’m not allowing external forces (also known as my grandmother, etc.) to pressure me; and I’m not going to pressure Lil C.
Despite my not pushing her, Lil C has taken a great interest in the potty lately. Unfortunately, this interest is usually only after I have changed her diaper. She then wants to "sit on a poppy" after the point is already moot. Then, she’ll forget that she’s supposed to be sitting on the "poppy" and start wandering around diaper-less on my white carpet, causing me an anxiety attack for a couple minutes before I finally convince her that we’d both be happier if she had a diaper on.
In addition to her little obsession with sitting on the poppy, she’s also obsessed with these little animal toys. She collected random little people characters from the zoo and the farm, her V-tech train animals, and any random figurine she’s received over the years such as Care Bears, Jungle Book characters, etc. and they go absolutely EVERYWHERE with us. At any given time, she has at least five of them in her arms. Leaving the house causes great anxiety unless I can find a bag and dump all of the animal characters in there for her. If we abandon any one of them at home, it’s cause for a complete and total meltdown. And yes, she has cataloged them all to memory. If we forget the monkey, she will cry for the monkey for a good 30 minutes. If she happens to see a random monkey image on a billboard or something, it will jog her memory enough to elicit all new "Oh NO MONKEY!" cries.
So, you take these two interests of hers: the "poppy" and the animals, combine them, and you have this:
. . . a "pool day" (her words-not mine). Did I mention she also loves the pool?
Somehow I’m thinking that true potty action isn’t going to happen with the "pool poppy;" and something tells me we’re at least a little while away from potty trained bliss. . .
Mixed Bag of Results
Filed under: Growing Pains, Mental Strain for Mama, Tales from the dojo
The minute I saw Big I’s face when I picked her up from school, I knew I wasn’t going to get a good report. She looked tired, deflated, and just plain sad. She started crying before we reached the car. The day was too long, she missed me and Lil C too much, and she just wasn’t going back to do that again.
We eventually got to the good stuff. Her teacher is nice. She had fun seeing her friends again. Lunch wasn’t so bad. There were two recesses (Man, who wouldn’t love that???). She’ll get used to it. She was like this last year with Kindergarten. First grade is going to take some getting used to as well. I’m really happy she has a four day weekend, and that next week is another short week. She needs a gradual introduction to this all day business (and to be honest, so do I). I must say though, that I held up way better than I did last year. I had a teary moment or two, but that was it. At least one of us made it through the day without full on tears.
After a couple hours of decompressing, Big I and I made our way to our new dojo. It only took us about eight minutes to get there (during traffic-I’m so loving the shorter commute), so we were early. We stood outside and talked about what we thought it was going to be like. Big I was excited, but nervous. I was feeling the same.
Then, a fabulous looking motorcycle drove into the parking lot and there was our new teacher (an impressive 9th degree black belt even without the motorcycle entrance). With such an outstanding entrance, Big I was already losing her nerves. "Is that my teacher?" she asked excitedly. Once inside, she was also very floored by the various pictures on the walls of our new teachers from magazines, newspaper articles, etc. I explained who they all were, and she marveled, "Wow! They’re famous!"
We changed, got situated, were introduced and then started our work out, and a work out it was. There were a couple hundred kicks (from a ground-fighting position which was new to us and pretty cool). Yes, I will be paying for those cool kicks tomorrow. The muscles are already starting to complain a bit.
The higher ranks separated and did kata while Big I stayed with the lower ranks and worked on something else. I don’t know what they were doing because I was concentrating on my own stuff; but I do know that she excitedly talked to me about seeing how to break that "muscle" which most people know as the collar bone on the way home. I informed her that it’s actually a bone, for future reference. That only increased the excitement.
At the end of the two hours, I’m pretty sure there was steam rising from my head, and my gi. . . well, it needs to be washed and badly. It was a great work out and a fun night. It felt awesome to be back in karate class again. I’m happy to say that my neck seems to have held up pretty well. I’m sure I’ll have some soreness tomorrow, but that’s to be expected as I continue to heal.
Big I and I spent the drive home discussing our new dojo, and it’s quite obvious that she does not have the reservations about our new karate school that she obviously has about first grade. It seems that Big I and I will fit in there quite well. It already felt very comfortable. Today may have been a bit shaky with the first grade business; but tonight was an overwhelming success.
To all my regular commenters, comment moderation has been turned on until the spammers decide to give up. I got some of the most insane spam comments the other day and it just needs to stop. So, sorry about the delay in seeing your comments up there; but they will all get up there eventually as long as you’re not trying to get me to transfer funds from Africa or something. I appreciate all of your comments and will give you free reign soon. Promise.
Also, one of my fabulous readers along with her "zoo" is walking for the Humane Society. If you’d like to contribute to her efforts, go here. You can also click the link in the sidebar.
Notes from a 5-year old
My husband was about to leave with Big I to run some errands. Big I asks, "Are we gonna return that shirt to "Old Lady"?" She was referring to Old Navy.
Big I: Mommy, do you know that baby pigs are called "piglips?"
Big I: "That is the funniest thing I never heard!"
But by far, the best thing I’ve heard her say in recent days. . .
"Mommy, I love karate."
And then, because I wasn’t basking in delight enough she said, "Can we practice karate sometime today?"
The smile on my face? I think it’s permanent.
Elmo-palooza
I didn’t write about karate last week. I wanted to, but I just didn’t have any time to put anything coherent together. First, the gifts started arriving. . .
Then, I was too busy being all "wah, my baby is a year old"; and then came the baking. . . lots and lots of baking. First came the cookies in the shapes of C’s, 1’s, little hands and little feet. . .
Then came the cupcakes, complete with Elmo cupcake papers and Elmo icing decorations.
Then came the baby block cake that took 5.5 hours to complete from start to finish. It was four layers and took all kinds of patience and tools like a cake leveler (which is THE coolest baking invention EVER), and food coloring and Smoothie Skittles (which I don’t recommend eating although they are great for decorating).
The cake was a huge success as evidenced by the cake buzz. . .
As if the baking wasn’t enough, there was also decorating, and other food preparation. . .
But all that really matters is that the party was a huge hit with Lil C. She loved the balloons. . .
She loved all her gifts, including her clothes (that’s my girl!). . .
She also loved her new car. Our living room is now a drive-in for watching Elmo’s World. . .
And playing with Big I has never been so much fun. . .
The party was indeed a huge hit with Lil C. . .
This post has been brought to you by the monster(s) who have taken over my home. . .
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