Reflections on Two Year Olds

I have been the mother of a two year old for four months now and that qualifies me to make a few reflections. Sadly it qualifies me to do little else but... here we go. In my humble opinion, two year olds have three modes: demanding, shy, and dead asleep.

Demanding seems to be how they wake up to the world. "Mommy, I need to go pee." No please and thank yous. Just straight demands. "I want milk."

"Can you say, 'Please'?"

"Pweeeeessee... *he he he*"

"Ok. (grumbling under my breath) You ungrateful booger..."

"Mommy, have the buttons. (translation: "Change the channel. The news is getting boring.") Want watch Cars." Handing me the remote, "Have the buttons! HAVE THE BUTTONS!!!! HAVE IT!! HAVE... IT...!!!!"

"K, Mommy is trying to feed the baby. Can you wait?"

"NO! HAVE IT!"

The great part about shy mode is that when people are around, the demands get quiet or non-existent. She will pull at my hand until I fall over or whisper in my ear until it's dripping wet from her spitting in it but at least she isn't yelling.

One lady I was talking to was ignoring her 6 year old son just long enough for him to get grabby. The height of his hands when he was reaching up for her was right at boob level and he grabbed those knockers and squeezed saying in a quiet but urgent voice, "Moooooom! I need you!" It was hilarious!

When the demands come with unreasonable crying, you know the last mode is approaching. Although the crying may be annoying you to the point where your eyes might pop out of your head, you can rejoice in the fact that blessed sleep is on the way. It's almost nap time (or bed time), people!

Although I have been going through the stages with Abby, I have been having a blast teaching her to play make believe, listening to her learn to make sentences and misuse the English language (wish I could get more of that on video but shy mode seems to kick in in front of the camera as well), and generally just be around each other.

I noticed how beautiful she was the other day at the breakfast table with her wavy hair all down on her shoulders and her blue eyes looking up at me as she said, "HEY! Don't take Abby's coffee (hot chocolate) away!" Dang, we make cute kids...