Terrible Two's

Conversations with a 2-year-old

{at naptime}
Me: Stephanie. You had better be in bed.
S: (too close to be in bed) Bed?
Me: Yes, Bed. Get in your bed.
S: My bed.
Me. Yes. Bed. Now.
S: Now?
Me: Now.
S: Oh, now.
Me: (rolling eyes & praying for patience)
S: Now?

{getting ready to go somewhere}
Me: Find your shoes so we can go.
S: Go?
Me: Yes. Go. Find your shoes.
S: Oh, shoes.
Me: (a minute or so later) Did you find your shoes?
S: Yep. Shoes.
Me: Bring them here.
S: Them here? .... I do it!
S: (after trying to get the shoes on herself) I can't do it.

{getting into the van which grown adults have trouble stepping up into}
S: I do it! I do it!
Me: (after awhile of letting her try) Let me help you.
S: (screaming) NO! I DO IT! I DO IT!
After which I usually end up having to put her into the van and then she gets to scream and cry for a few minutes until she forgets what the problem was in the first place.

{after the lights have been flickering for awhile}
Me: Stephanie! Don't play with the lights.
S: Play with the lights.
Me: No. Do NOT play with them.
S: Play with them.
Me: Stop.
S: Stop?
Me: (Getting mad now) Stephanie!
S: Stefnee!
Me: Stephanie, hush!
S: Stefnee, hush!
Me: (this is the point where I have to turn around so she can't see me laughing. I can't help it. She's funny and it's SO cute how she says her name.)

My Friend

This is my friend. He comes with his sisters to stay with us sometimes while his Daddy goes to work with my Daddy. I think he's trying to give me a kiss in this picture! I am adorable, after all! And, I really like him too.

Scary!

Stephanie may not be scared of real bugs but she is scared of a couple of things...

This is a bath toy. It started out small and then expanded with the water. I put her in the tub one night and she FLEW out of the tub and ran down the stairs. This is the only thing that could possibly have scared her so I took it out and she was fine.

This is our Halloween Tree from Hallmark. (Thank you, Annette, for telling me about it!) Meredith loves to make it sing and it sings to the tune of "The Addams Family". But it scares Stephanie for some reason. She always runs to another room saying "Scary" when it's playing.

Bugs

Why doesn't Mommy like bugs? I brought her one this morning and she jumped a little and said "Ewww!". Then she had me throw it in the trash. I like bugs. I especially like picking them up and bringing them to show Mommy.

Mommy's note: Why does she have to pick them up? She was carrying a dead cricket by its leg. At first I thought it was one of the kids' rubber toys but, noooo, it was a real dead cricket. I try not to overreact because I don't want her to be scared of bugs, but they're soooo yucky. Why does she have to pick them up?

That's MY Baby!

My Great-Great-Aunt Esther comes and picks the baby up sometimes and takes him away and I don't like it. That's MY baby. Mommy says she always brings him back but what if she doesn't this time? I cry & cry when she takes him away - at least for a few minutes. Then its actually kind of fun without him because Mommy can spend more time with me! But I'm still always happy to see him come back.

I'm TWO!!!

I had a ladybug cake for my birthday. It was okay. BUT the ICE CREAM was "Dishes!" (Delicious) I even asked for MORE.

Zoo

We went to the zoo on Monday for my birthday. It was the first time I've ever gone to the zoo. It was great. There was a lot of open space for me to run away. I think there may have been some animals there too. I did like the polar bear - he swam around and looked at us - but he didn't get any of us. The budgies were really cool too. We went into their cage and Mommy & Hayden fed them and let them land on their fingers. Meredith didn't want them to land on her and I was way too excited for them to do that. I did almost step on several of them though. But it wore me out. I'm still tired today. That doesn't mean I'm going to take a good nap though!