It's a Love/Hate Relationship

I now fully understand what it means to have a toddler in the Terrible Twos.

When she firs turned two, I thought to myself, "This is going to be a great year! Olivia is sweet and I know that she is just going to be a good girl". The first few months were fine. I mean, the best they could be with a transition to daycare, then we took the front off of her crib, and finally a move to one of the units downstairs. But she did really well.

Boy oh boy does she have a stubborn streak! Mike was telling me this morning that he told her to sit down and put on her shoes for daycare and she blurted out a strong NO..... Needless to say that that did not go over well.

But there have been some amazingly sweet moments! We have moved into a phase the last couple of months where she is waking up before us. Sometimes I am in the process of trying to talk myself into getting up, but often she wakes up to my first alarm and is wide awake before me. Anyways... It is the sweetest sound to here her door crack open, the pitter patter of her little feet and the swishing of her blanket as it trails on the ground behind her. The next thing I know I feel some little fingers on my arm or back as she is trying to get my attention. A whisper, "Hi Mommy!". (LOVE!) I pull her up onto our bed and she snuggles herself down right next to me as we get comfortable. When she first started doing this, there was a morning when she climbed in our bed and fell back to sleep. It was so precious to just watch her sleep. The sound of her sucking on her binky will remain one of my favorite sounds ever! She does it right in my ear. Sometimes we whisper to each other how much we love each other as we try not to wake daddy up. Sometimes I point out daddy and she crawls over me to lick him. Haha! That's right, she has entered a licking phase.

For a little while she was picking at her fingernails and toenails all the time. Then I caught her in the car one day taking off her shoes and socks and sucking on her toes. Eww! Lately it has been more about sticking all of her fingers in her mouth (sometimes gagging) and licking people! Not sure where she got it from, but she is loving the reactions that she gets. I'll apologize in advance if she licks you! Sorry!

Random meltdowns in the store. Throwing herself down at home. The attitude. It is so draining! Some days it is hour to hour, and some days it is minute to minute. I will say that things are getting better as her language continues to develop. Daycare has been AMAZING for her! They are working on conversational language with her right now. We are so blessed to have found this daycare. God definitely was watching out for us. She can count to 20 and can identify most of the letters in the alphabet. She love to sing her ABC's and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Not just sing, she belts them out.

Learning to share is hard for a two year old! I think that Olivia has done really well though. She loves to make little friends and to have people follow her. She will make a great big sister someday. I have heard that three is worse than two. Well, I realized that her birthday is in about 3 months, so Here. We. Go!