Slow down! (Amelia Update!)

We're LONG overdue for an Amelia update! The kid is growing up way too fast! The other day, I literally walked into the living room to see her doing this:

How she managed to find both David's computer, his pad and pen, and my phone, we'll never know!  Evidently we've instilled in her the importance of a good list, not to mention a laptop and cell. I keep saying that she's into everything these days, which is still true, but now if we attempt to remove her (or it), we get treated with a crazy tantrum and/or hollering. I think the terrible 2s may be here...for example, the other night while David and I were having supper (she was done eating already), we told her not to do something and she threw up her hand and yelled "No Dada!" then looked at me and said "No Mama!" We kept our calm and told her that it was not okay to yell at us, but as soon as she left the room we started silently laughing - David said that we're lucky she's not a witch as we'd be on fire! She redeemed herself later that night, though, by noticing an scrape on my cheek and giving it a kiss to make it all better! So sweet.

I think the biggest change has been her increased independence. Everything is "No! Mia!" meaning that she either wants to keep whatever she has that she thinks is hers or that she wants to do something herself. This is pretty much constant. Getting out the door in the mornings is a challenge - first I have to convince her that it's okay to leave and go to daycare, and then we have to duke it out to get her shoes, coat, and hat and mittens on. She also changes her mind, a lot. We'll give her an option to pick which jacket she will wear and she'll pick one, we'll start to put it on, then she'll pick another one, and so on (maybe this just means that we have too many jackets....and shoes...and hats...but a girl should have options, right?). It's exhausting.

In addition to the increased independence, is a desire to 'help.' So she likes to try to help in the kitchen with the cooking and baking. This works out okay most of the time, but sometimes it gets a bit messy:

She was helping me put sprinkles on the spritz cookies, but decided that she should pop one of the uncooked cookies into her mouth, which meant that I got to dig it back out. Needless to say, she was not happy.

Her hands were green from the sprinkles and dough, but I realized later that her FEET were also green because she had been stepping on all of the sprinkles that she spilled!  Too funny.

Good thing we're heading home for Christmas in a little over a week as we constantly hear about Nana B and Papa B, and Nana EIO and Papa EIO (as in E-I-E-I-O...). Nana and Papa EIO were at our place for a bit this past weekend, so she got in some play time with them. The day after they left I found her talking on her play phone to Nana EIO.  I'm pretty sure she was demanding that she come back.

 

 

So, wish us luck as we dive further into the terrible 2s!  Any suggestions, besides crazy levels of patience?  Cocktails?  That seems to help by the end of some days!  :)