I think, if I were to look back over the blog posts from sometime in October of last year, I might find a posting about "where has my awesome daughter gone and who replaced her with Zool?" A friend calmly explained last year that 1/2 birthdays are the worst times for kids under five and not to worry - it will get better when she turns 3. Well, here we are again at another 1/2 birthday and Stella has turned in Zool.
Well, not exactly the monster from Ghostbusters but rather an opinionated little snot.
- Mommy, I am NOT eating that dinner. (pushes it away across the table to the point of almost knocking it off)
- Mommy, I don't like that shirt. I am not wearing it. Eewww.
Stella, please put your shoes on. "No." What did you say? "No no no no not ever ever ever for you ever again!!!"
Needless to say, Stella has recently learned about the "uncooperative chair." (We borrowed the phrase from the Kevin Henkes mouse books, and by god, if any of you know them, Stella is Lily. She is. No doubt.)
Steve and I find ourselves looking at her and saying "Excuse me? What did you say?" Somehow, in the course of 4 weeks, she has learned to talk back, but when we tell her that talking back to your parents isn't nice, she doesn't seem to understand the concept of "talking back" and then we have to go into the whole discussion of what that means and by then, the moment's past and she's off doing something else.
The other night, the 'no's" escalated so much that I finally say, Stella, if you can't do something for me, then I'm not going to do anything for you. I'm not going to make your Halloween mermaid costume. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I realized that maybe I had gone too far. Stella looked at me, with a bit of tears welling in her eyes and said "Mommy, you just broke my heart."
Thanks Stella. Way to make a Mommy feel awesome. Damn. She's going to be an actor, I just know it. I think we jinxed ourselves by naming her Stella.
A mom at an indoor playground last week assuaged my fears and told me, it's ok. The day he turned 4, everything got better. Really, the day he turned four. Okay, April 16, 2013 here we come.
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In other news, Louisa magically turned 6 months already. All in one week, she turned 6 months, got an ear infection, started "Stranger danger," started "I only want Mommy," and is teething. Oh, and she refuses to eat solid food. We've tried avocado, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Not interested in anything. Tonight I'm banking on peas, but I have a feeling I'll still be shot down.
Last week we went to Lake Mead for some semblance of "beach time" which we so desperately miss. I was sitting on a beach chair under the awning off the van hanging out with Lulu while Steve splashed in the water with Stella. Louisa was fascinated with my hat and kept trying to take it off my head. When she finally succeeded, she looked at me and laughed the biggest belly laugh ever, like "ha ha Mommy, I won!"
Et tu Louisa? Boy, are we in for it.
2 comments:
We, too, are depending on that magic change on the 4th birthday and are counting down. I asked a psychologist friend the other day if a 3 year old could be diagnosed with either bipolar disorder or megalomania. She said no. I'm not convinced.
We definitely had the loudest, most high-strung, on-again-off-again hysterical kid at the preschool fall festival--and with several hundred people wandering around, that was saying something. Wish we could put A. and S. in a room together and let them sort it out for themselves until those 4th birthdays.
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