Right On Schedule

Isn't it funny how you can have a happy, easy-going, willing-to-go-along-with-anything little girl, and right around the time the 2-year mark is around the corner, she suddenly...isn't? The Terrible Twos are definitely here. I feel like I can't take Mira anywhere in public anymore! I'm so glad she's showing that she's developmentally appropriate and on-track by trying to figure out where the boundaries are and by pushing my buttons incessantly, but holy crap, where did my sweet little girl go??? I have to keep reminding myself that this is just a phase, just like the newborn phase when I felt like a gross exhausted leaking zombie for months and it felt like it would never end - this too shall pass. Mark tells me that his older daughter Jintelle behaved very similarly when she was this age. The second he would put her down she would take off running and good luck finding her and chasing her down again! And then, according to him, all of a sudden one day she just calmed down and that was the end of it. My mom says that my sister Sara was similar in temperament too - very high-energy, hard to keep distracted with any one thing for a period of time longer than about 15 seconds, but very inquisitive, very curious, and very good-natured. Both these descriptions fit Mira very well these days. And Sara did calm down eventually too and she's a very intelligent, well-functioning member of society. :) So there's hope, but gee whiz, this is a tiring age! I feel in some ways that I had more freedom when she was a baby because at least when I took her places 1) she couldn't go anywhere on her own and 2) if she was crying it was because of something easy to solve, like she's hungry. Now I take her into public and I can count on at least 100 (ok not really, it just feels that way) temper tantrums - you know, the kind where they throw themselves on the floor when you prevent them from pulling everything off a shelf and they kick and scream and then hit and kick you and you have to carry a writhing little animal out the door. Aah, fun times. :)

What does make me feel better though is that I must be doing a good job with setting boundaries because there have been a few times I've been in public somewhere with her and she's gotten ready to throw a fit, and I say to her very sternly, "If you scream, we are leaving." Then she looks uncertainly at me and apparently decides I mean business because she doesn't end up throwing the fit. Mark has also commented on the fact that if he tells her to do something multiple times she doesn't do it, but then when I ask her once she runs off and does it right away. So I feel a little better when I can see that she's got the makings of a well-behaved child in there. I just wish it was easier to find an outlet for all her energy when it's cold and snowy outside!

Well, enough complaining. Mira really is a sweet girl and is really pretty smart, in my opinion. I'm running out of body parts to teach her because she learns them so fast. She tries really hard (and mostly succeeds) to get herself dressed and undressed. She still doesn't have a big vocabulary but every once in awhile she'll surprise me by saying something completely out of the blue. Mark's mother is a speech therapist/pathologist who has worked with kids for years and I'm thinking we may want to have her start working with Mira before too long. She's trying to talk, she just seems to have some trouble figuring out how to make certain sounds. But she definitely understands everything we say - actually I think she understands more than we give her credit for but we don't realize it because she can't really repeat back anything. Well, it'll come eventually - and plus, the sooner she talks the sooner she can talk back! (Quick, name the show!)

Besides, who needs talking when you've got this cute face to look at?

We finally got a few days last week with temperatures close to 40 - a real heat wave! So Mira and I took advantage of the warm weather (ha) and spent some time outside.

She kept pushing her hand down in the snow to see what would happen. Luckily no face-planting this time.

Watching an airplane.

And off she goes.

We took Mira to get her professional 2-year photos taken. I remembered how many great pictures we got last year for her 1-year pictures and figured with her exuberant personality she'd love to show off for the camera. Boy was I wrong. I was mortified at how many temper tantrums she threw. Needless to say I left a very generous tip for our photographer to make up for her having to deal with us. I promise I'm not a bad parent, Mira was just being a brat that day!!! I'm impressed we even got any good pictures at all. We weren't able to get any family pictures this time - we tried that and it turned into Mark and me trying to hold Mira down on the couch which led to more screaming and hitting and kicking. Here are my favorites from the session:

Singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

This is about the time we started bribing her with candy to get her to sit still for a few seconds.

Playing Patty Cake

Aaaaaannnnnddddd she's done

Definitely done.

As I keep reminding myself... It means her frontal lobe is developing normally. Plus, those last two will be great blackmail material for when she's older. :)