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She’s two. She is so two right now I can’t stand it. Feeling crappy doesn’t do much for the amount of patience that I have either, unfortunately. I am irritable and short of humor sometimes. Like when it takes 10 minutes to go down the stairs because she wants to slide down head-first on her belly and I won’t let her. Or she has to examine every bump on our textured walls as she makes her way down. And comment on them, too. Or go down on her bottom. No, on her feet. Wait, no, the bottom again. “Uh, mmm, uh…Mommy make quack sounds.” And I wonder if it’s just me being old and tired or if her behavior has gotten more demanding and outlandish. Maybe a little bit of both. I wish they would just figure out what the heck’s wrong with me already so I could feel better and eliminate that factor altogether.

We had a rocky time running errands this morning and The Mommy got a crash course in Timeouts-On-The-Go. They didn’t work, basically. I will tell her not to do something and she will look me in the eye while she does it. Or I will ask her to do something and she pretends not to hear me. I was shocked the first time she used this tactic. I’m not sure why I was shocked. Why should my experience be any different than any of yours? Why would my child not exert her independence cleverly disguised as defiance just like anybody else’s children? The thing that disturbs me the most is the taking a swipe at me. She doesn’t hit hard but she definitely strikes out in frustration. That is nothing that she has ever seen us do and we’ve told her several times already that, in our family we never, never, never hit people or animals. I’m kind of devastated right now although I know I’ll bounce back. She’s just Testin’ The Momma.

On a more positive note, she’s back on the potty seat after two weeks of quiet “no’s” when I asked her if she wanted to go potty on the potty seat. The defiance is hitting me just like the potty training did at first. I’m just not prepared for my sweet little angel to push the boundaries while learning how to handle her frustration appropriately. Tantrums I can handle. The defiance just took me by surprise. And it kinda pushes my buttons. Guess I’d better get ready and quick, huh?