Wild child

Yikes!! What a weekend. Molly had an attack of the "terrible 2s." Out of nowhere she had fits of throwing things (the laundry I had just folded, blocks, my book), putting things in her mouth (the eraser for her dry erase board, weird stuff off the floor), tantrums over ridiculous things (she wanted to wear my shoes instead of hers) and generally pushing the limits with that look on her face, trying one thing after another until she gets a reaction out of us. She had a stand-off with Jim at the bottom of the stairs Sunday over whether or not she would hang up her coat that lasted at least 20 minutes. (He won).

She's mostly back to her usual self now. Last week we skipped most of our usual activities so she could relax at home and play outside in the beautiful weather. When play group rolled around Monday she was all excited, then abruptly she told me she didn't want to go. I asked why and she said "I don't like my friends." I thought we weren't going to have to deal with that sort of problem until she's a teenager. As she saw the kids got into the house across the street, though, I guess she remembered some of their better qualities because just as abruptly she said, "oh, we better get going."

Here's a little garden we started with sprouted wheat, which was left over from a bread I made. It's so cool!!! I've seen this idea a bunch of places and I followed the instructions here. (I love this new on-line magazine "Rhythm of the Home" -- it's Montessori- and Waldorf-inspired crafts and kid stuff). I want to use this as Molly's Easter basket but I'm not sure how well it will travel. It's already way over the rim now and it's only been a couple days. The little blades of grass always get little drops of water clinging to their tips. So cool.


This is Molly's baby drawing.


And staying warm in Molly's shirt.
I left Molly like this, with the baby in her shirt, when I got in the shower this morning. When I came out she was sitting in my big living room chair under the blanket with baby (a spot we call our "nest") and pretending to read my magazine to her. She told me she also gave her "whispers," which is something she invented involving the tip of a hoodie sweatshirt string or just fingers gentling dragged around a person's face and that now they were snuggling.

Oh, and I had to play nurse this morning to get a splinter out of Molly's finger. It's the first time I've ever had to do something like that and it went better than I expected. Molly was so patient. I had to use a sterilized sewing needle to work the splinter out enough to get it with tweezers. I asked Molly if she could feel it and she said it felt like whispers. Toward the end she told me "be careful with that because it's pointy." That's it! It's so funny that taking a needle to her finger doesn't cause her any sort of stress, yet she lost it yesterday when we were getting our car inspected because she saw the car with the hood up and people looking inside. Something about that totally freaked her out.

Oh, and speaking of things that freak her out, the toilet has moved up way high on the list of fears. She stopped using the potty entirely late last week. All done. Not interested. Diaper, please. She'll run around bare for a while, then feel the need to go and ask urgently for a diaper. Even if we're in the bathroom when this happens, she wants a diaper. No potty. No, thank you. Finally, after a few days of this, she saw a plastic potty just like hers at play group and when we got back home she found hers in the basement (put away because she had already outgrown it!!!) and asked to bring that back upstairs. So now occasionally she'll go in the plastic potty on the floor, which I then have to empty out. That's progress, I guess.

Poor little girl. She's been having a rough time. Of course, she's standing her right now bouncing to "she'll be coming around the mountain" and getting excited to go to Mother Goose on the Loose at the library. Even a troubled Molly is still a pretty happy kid.