Toddlers Are Funny

Some things Clara does that make me laugh:

• She gets out of bed at nap time, plays in her room until she decides she's ready to sleep, and finally slips her books out under her door before falling asleep right in front of it. One day she didn't have books available to her, so instead she took off her socks and shoved them under the door. It's like a little flag of surrender. Or maybe it's something fun to do that then removes all her entertainment so she succumbs to sleep.

• Clara seems to feel quite "bullied" by young babies who may reach for a toy she's playing with or pull on her in some way. She screams, pulls her toys in close, and runs to mommy, proceeding to climb on my lap and glare at the offending baby (who's happily toddling along, oblivious to the situation). It's a comical sight considering she's often far bigger than the "culprit."

• She loves "coloring," which more or less consists of handing mom or dad the crayon of her choice and commanding them to "draw tree"... over and over again, until we have pages and pages of trees in every color in Clara's personal notebook.

• When she gets in trouble, she tends to take it very seriously. As a result, she often spends time rehearsing what she's been told earlier that day. While we were driving a few days ago, I'm hearing the little voice in the backseat say, "Do not 'frow" it --milk! Don't do dat!" over and over again. Today I overheard her saying, "Look at me. Time out!" 

• When Clara wakes up in the morning she comes out of her room to find us. As soon as she sees me she gives me the brightest smile and the most affectionate, "Hey mom!" you can imagine. If she sees Mitch first, he gets an excited "Dad!" squeal. It's a great way to start off our day. It always makes me giggle.

So fun. :)

Conflicting Emotions

"Clara, do you know the meaning of 'confused?'" Mitch asked last week.

She had just spent 5 minutes whining about not wanting her oatmeal and being "all done," then proceeded to burst into tears when I finally removed it from her. Upon returning it (in confusion myself), she grabbed her spoon and dug in.

This type of scenario is common with Miss Clara. She has many conflicting emotions and will push for something, realizing the moment she gets it that she didn't actually want that after all... or maybe she did she later decides.

Like when she takes her shoes off in the car and then cries because ...her shoes are off.

Or yesterday when she got herself a yellow spoon at breakfast. I had already gotten her a blue spoon, but she really wanted the yellow one, so that was fine. Unfortunately she kept changing her mind. Eventually she was alternating bites with each spoon and at one point tried to take a bite using both.

Or today when we went outside to play, she wanted her jacket on, then off, then on, then off, then on. And when I finally made her decision for her in an effort to get us out the door, taking it away, she was quite genuinely upset about it.

I try to encourage and allow her to make her own decisions about things that don't really matter to me. I want to give her a sense of control and independence when I can, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous when she can't make up her mind.

Mitch likes to be funny and call her a "typical woman."

It makes me chuckle, because I know I'm the main woman he's referencing.

However, I think the root of the matter is that it's just SO hard to live with any decision when you're two!