What exactly happens to time when you have a child? It feels like just yesterday that we were celebrating her birthday yet seems so long ago at the same time, why does a month feel like a week but also like 3 months?
I think we have officially entered the terrible twos. I have mixed emotions on the terrible twos, on one hand I think it’s not as bad as I had anticipated but on the other, it’s everything I feared it would be and more. Thankfully (maybe not?) her tantrum throwing is reserved for James and I, at daycare or the church nursery – perfect angel. Side note - Is it odd that I love that our daycare provider once proclaimed that all the children were ‘on crack’ one day? It’s just totally something I would say and I appreciated that she said it too. Her ZZ (my mom) has only witnessed a few tantrums while watching her during the week and only twice, both within a 10 minute period, during our trip a few weeks ago for our nephew's birthday did she show Gammie (James’ mom) her abilities. And you know what, she put herself in time out both times – just went to the corner to cry until she worked it out.
We are slowly learning to deal with this terrible twoishness (making up words is fun!), if she’s being disobedient it’s a trip to time out, if it’s a tantrum we’ll just walk away and let her figure it out. I’m making us sound like we’re unfazed by this and handling everything well, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t nights that a big glass of wine and a huge sigh of relief once she’s in bed weren’t involved. We’ve just learned to laugh and make jokes about how frustrating it is sometimes and honestly, that’s saving our sanity.
So, onto the great things about our little 2 year and 1 month old!
We are slowly working on potty training and our somewhat lazy approach seems to be working well so far. She doesn’t always tell us when she needs to go but it is getting more frequent, even when we aren’t at home! We haven’t tried a public restroom yet but she isn’t afraid of the bathrooms of friends and family. And last Sunday when I collected her from the nursery at church the volunteer told me she hadn’t changed her diaper because she used the potty. I asked, with astonishment in my voice, “She told you she needed to go?” And she said, “No, I asked her if she needed to and she said she did. I didn’t even know she had on a diaper until we got in there.” I thanked her profusely for asking and then told her she’d never gone for anyone besides family before (I left out the part that she’d never really had the opportunity to do so). So, success so far? I think so.
Her vocabulary is nothing short of amazing. She can basically repeat anything we ask her to and comes up with phrases that make us laugh and wonder where she got them from. She is also quite polite, if one of us sneezes she will say, “Bless you Mommy/Daddy." she’s very good with saying ‘thank you’ and she recently picked up ‘welcome’ and is getting better with saying ‘please’ more often. One of the funniest things is when she says, “I’ll be right back. OK?” to which we’ll answer “OK, I’ll be right here.” and then she gets a little confused and says, “No, I’ll be here?” such a mean little game but it makes us laugh. And if one of us says, “I’m sorry.” To her, she’ll say it right back which gets a little confusing as well, she hasn’t quite grasped that we’re apologizing to her not asking her to apologize to us.
When she isn’t throwing one of the aforementioned tantrums, she is just the sweetest little thing. Every morning when I leave for work or really just about any time either one of us leaving the house without her she’ll give us a huge hug and kiss and will respond to our “I love you, Savannah.” with “Love you, Mommy/Daddy.” Melts.Our.Hearts.
Thankfully for us, she still loves to snuggle. If we’re watching a movie before bed she’ll sit right next to us on the couch or on our laps and just be content. She also likes to copy whatever we’re doing, if we’re laying on the floors with the couch pillows, she’s right there with us.
And, she still allows us to rock her before bedtime which I’m positive is more for our benefit than hers. She’d probably be happy to go straight in her crib after story and milk but she lets us sit with her in the dark and sing a few songs first. It’s just nice to have that few minutes of uninterrupted quiet time and snuggles and we’re not ready to give that up.
We recently put away the last of what we consider her baby things, we had been using a specific type of sippy cup for her bedtime milk and we were thinking the spout was so soft that it probably resembled a bottle a bit too much so it needed to go. We figured it would be a bit of battle to change the cup but much to our surprise, she didn’t object at all. I’m honestly thinking we should just stop with one child, all of the transitions that we thought would be so difficult (breast milk to whole milk, giving up the pacifier) have been so easy – there’s just no way we’d get that lucky again!
Now I’m going to take a moment to brag about my husband. He does get frustrated, just like I do, when she’s crabby, crabby, crabby in the evenings but that man can entertain her for hours and make her laugh and smile like no one else. His energy amazes me, he can run around the house with her long after I’ve declared myself to be exhausted. And there is nothing I love more than hearing him make her laugh, they just have so much fun together. So James, thank you, for being such an excellent father – you definitely earn your 4+ hours of golf every weekend!
Random pictures from this month...
