Olivia has recently gone from being a high maintenance child to being the most high maintenance a child could get (aside from having a serious health issue or something). Those of you who also have high maintenance kids know what I'm talking about. Not all of us do. It makes me feel badly when moms at playgroups remark how much easier their kids are than mine. It happens a lot. Olivia is engergetic, very curious, but also, extremely clingy and all that makes for one tired mama!
Just this morning she has:
BROUGHT ME VARIOUS YANKEE CANDLES ABOUT 50 TIMES, YELLING "SMOW!" at the top of her lungs (smow=smell and is said like ou as in ouch). She even dropped one of my foot while I was trying to put my contacts in.
INSISTED ON FEEDING HERSELF WITH A GROWN-UP SPOON WHILE MAKING THE BIGGEST MESS EVER(I think this is pretty typical at this age). There is food all over my dining room, way beyond the protective mat under her high chair-- protective my big ass because this child chucks everything across the room! There is even food all in the leaves of the house plant. If I try to take the spoon, or re-position the bowl, or do ANYTHING that involves touching her in order to prevent the mess, she screams "OUCH! OUCH! I DO! I DO!"
DUMPED A HOUSE PLANT OVER. I thought I had it high enough up on something that she couldn't dump it. Guess I didn't realize just how tall she's gotten. BTW, I just remembered that I haven't even cleaned up the mess yet.
DUMPED ANOTHER HOUSE PLANT OVER. She's never been interested in this one, but in her effort to drive me completely insane, everything's fair game today. I am so stubborn. I hate having to get rid of my plants because I love them, but otherwise, I'm going to have constant messes.
SHE WON'T EAT ANY REAL FOOD unless she uses the spoon to feed herself (but most of it ends up everywhere but her mouth). She's been on a bit of a hunger strike lately and the only way she'll eat is if it's soup ("poop" as she calls it) and she can feed herself. We all know toddlers are not capable of feeding themselves soup without making a mess.
YET, SHE GOES TO THE FRIDGE A MILLION TIMES A DAY AND BANGS ON IT usually wanting cheese. She'll eat some of it, but I've found that she mostly begs for food to feed to the dogs.
HUNG ON TO MY PANTS LEG preventing me from walking, but she doesn't want to be held.
Why do some people have kids who sit an play quietly by themselves? Do you? I already know some of you don't and know exactly what I'm talking about! :-) Is it all based on personality?
Ok, gotta run. Another candle awaits me. Olivia is pulling my pants leg and screaming "smow". Now I feel guilty for taking 10 mins to blog, but I had to.
Thank goodness this child is so loving an sweet because today I have zero patience. James has been sick and has kept me up the last few nights with his snoring and coughing (poor baby) :-( and everything just feels overwhleming when you're super tired.
Posted by Hannah at August 21, 2007 10:33 AMEmma's clingy and high matinence. I am very very lucky if I can put a pot on to boil water while she plays with a few toys in her crib.
Posted by: alfredsmom at August 21, 2007 11:57 AMhaha :) Sounds like you're the mother of a healthy toddler! :) Like I said before, Lucas seemed to become "two" at around 18 months. He gets into a *lot* of stuff. I feel like we should start hanging things from the ceiling (because that's the only place that's "safe"). It's crazy how much they can get into in, say, the span of 10 seconds! I keep reminding myself that this stage doesn't last forever. We had to discipline Meredith for the first time the other day. She keeps crawling over to Little Beast's food dish and taking big bites of her food. Ugh! Nasty! Good luck. (Meri and Luke also have good moments of playing together nicely, though, too.)
Posted by: Lisanne at August 21, 2007 12:53 PMJust remember that you get all of the high maintenance PLUS's... the loving hugs, kisses, and laughter!!! If you had an extremely low-key kid, you wouldn't get all those highs :)
Ahhhh, I am sooooooo with you on all this. Fun :)
Posted by: girl from florida at August 21, 2007 02:05 PMVery true GFF! My friends who have easier babies do not always get the cuddling time in that I do. Their babies are often more content to play alone. My good friend MF has complained about that before to me. Wouldn't trade all those hugs and kisses for anything. :-)
Posted by: Hannah at August 21, 2007 02:16 PMShe's getting close to two right? It's fun! The bubby turned two officially on Friday (17th) but he's been displaying toddler traits since around 15 months. We've found the best discipline method is 'time out' it's incredible, he'll throw one of those HE_UGE tantrums, and hell, even try to wack who ever is holding him in the face or wherever he can reach. He's at a very frustrated stage because his vocab is developing quickly, but he still doesn't have all the words to communicate perfectly - so we use our bathroom as the 'timeout' room. Two minutes in there and (lots of crashing about and stomping later) he comes out like the angel child he was before he had is tanty. When we open the door, we always give him a big hug for now being a good boy and explain why he was put in there in the first place. I'm finding now that the threat of 'timeout' and a count of 1....2.... is usually enough to get him to stop doing whatever it is that needs 'guidance'. The 'experts' recommend one minute for every year of their lives, so we started out using time out recently for 90 seconds (and believe me it feels like forever at first) and gradually increased to 2 minutes when he turned two. Don't get me wrong, we don't punish him for every little thing. He never gets more than 2 timeouts a day sometimes 3 on a bad day ,but like I say the 'threat' of a timeout usually sorts out the behaviour we want to route out. I'm totally quoting some british super nanny here - she once said that they will only be little actors/actresses - as long as they have an audience, it's amazing how unhurtful, but effective some well placed ignoring from mum can be!
Posted by: Valkyrie at August 21, 2007 02:51 PMWelcome to "toddlerhood". Just wait til she tells you, "because I said so" back. Oh that was the BEST one.
Posted by: sara at August 21, 2007 03:35 PMYou hit the nail on the head with that last line!
Both my boys were/are very busy so I totally understand what you are feeling. And everything has to be right now! She may mellow out a bit if she has a sibling one day. Then they have to realize that they can't have ALL the attention ALL the time. GFF's right. I have intense children but the love is intense too and I wouldn't trade that for anything. :)
I can relate to a lot of what you're going through. Lila is very similar. She requires all of my attention. I cannot get any housework down when it is just the two of us here. Once in a while she'll "read" herself a book or play with her toys, but otherwise, she's just so curious about everything. She pulls anything she can find off of tables, shelves, etc. She tries her best to open doors, get behind the TV, climb onto chairs/couches. She demands to use utensils when eating, and as I type this there is a piece of chicken stuck to the chair rail in my dining room. I just try to look at it in a positive light...she's got a lot of personality, a ton of creativity, a great vocabulary, and she's just not content w/ anything boring.
Posted by: Chas at August 21, 2007 11:33 PMMy daughter is sort of clingy at the playground but at the same time, she wants to get into everything. It's unreal. It's the strangest combination of both.
Posted by: manda at August 22, 2007 11:09 PM