The last few weeks have been extremely busy for us as a family with plenty more coming up but what I really want to talk about is as parents have seen so many changes in Olivia in the last maybe 2 months that have knocked us for six. I genuinely thought we had got away with the “terrible twos” but they have struck with a vengeance that we just were not prepared for!
When I think back over the last 2 years we have been blessed with Olivia, her personality, behaviour and everything in between. She ate everything put in front of her and slept all night through from about 8-10 weeks and napped for 2 hours a day everyday without fail. The DREAM I know! All the other parents at toddler groups etc gave me the evil eyes when I would comment on these things..the perfect child…but we have had our comeuppance alright recently.
I’m painting a picture that Olivia has turned into the little girl from the exorcist but that’s not entirely true…maybe im being too harsh 🙂 It has been over these last few weeks that I also have discovered a lot about myself too, all the bad points of course especially my lack of patience. I was talking aka moaning to my parents just a few weeks ago how I feel like my days off with Olivia are so repetitive; here are some of the classics
No, please don’t do that!
Take that out of your mouth!
No, please don’t touch that!
Please get down off the furniture!
Please don’t jump on the furniture!
Get down off the kitchen table before you hurt yourself!
Please listen to Mummy/Daddy!
what did Mummy/daddy say Olivia?!
What are your ears for Olivia?- Listening, that’s right please listen!
The list goes on..and on..and on some more 🙂 At one point I think I gave up saying no to her as I was so sick of listening to the sound of my own voice.
I have to admit she’s persistent – maybe a good quality she has got from us. The best example to illustrate this is the fact that she gets up at 7-7.30am and goes to bed at the same time in the evening with no nap anymore, this takes determination. She battles it, cries that she is tired but doesn’t want to go to bed, trips over her own feet because she is passed herself but never gives up. I have caught her on a few occasions asleep on the sofa when she just can’t take it anymore it’s such a shame shes asleep as I want the chance to say “told you so” …just kidding!
It has definitely tried my patience and anyone who knows me will know I hardly have any at the best of times. My lack of patience is probably my worst quality as a person and something ive been working on since Olivia came along. My mum did say the simplest of things to me about it all and that was simply “She’s two”. I just have to man up and hope that some of this devilment passes or at least lets up a bit. Another mum also said to me that their little girl went through this stage even though she is three but the difference is at three little ones begin to understand the reasoning behind things better. If you jump on the sofa and fall you will hurt yourself. Olivia just doesn’t get that now. Shes two.
Another explanation behind this is possibly now I’ve hit the 30 weeks pregnancy mark it is very obvious that Olivia knows there are changes going on and this could be another reason behind the change in behaviour. She would continually say “I’m not baby im a big girl” this has now reverted back to “I’m not a big girl im a baby still”. Mummy has to tell all the stories, Mummy has to put her hair in a ponytail, Mummy has to help her if there is a problem and poor Daddy isnt get much of a look in which I know Chris is finding tough. Even though she is playing all this to her advantage by pulling on our heartstrings it can be exhausting at times. One minute you are telling her to behave the next you are telling her she is the best girl in world to reassure her that she is loved and loved hard by both of us.
Olivia is a very active child. She never sits still for a minute. She is a little explorer, loves an adventure and gets bored very easily. The best thing to do to avoid all these testing times at the minute is definitely through distraction. She loves a trip to the park, a trip to our local W5 discovery centre, play dates with friends, a trip to scallywags or an afternoon at the library.
Take a deep breath and remember…she may be only two after all but where would we be without her and the answer is simple…totally lost 🙂
