Seriously?

So a couple of weeks ago, Hailey was throwing a fit. I'd had enough of it, so I told her that she could either stop crying, or go to her room.

Well, she stopped crying, spun on her heel, stomped off to her room and....

SLAMMED THE DOOR!!!!

Seriously???

I expected this kind of behavior....but not for another, oh, 10 years!!!

What am I gonna do when she's a teenager????

Picture trials.

Well, as it goes with an almost two year old, picture taking is not the easiest task.

HOWEVER, she looked SUPER cute in this outfit, so I tried...

....AND....

just got frustrated....

I got this:



And this:

love the look on her face in this one...


Those are as good as it got...the others were just of her running around...but you can still see how cute her outfit is.

What am I gonna do???

Seriously....I don't know what I'm going to do when my child is a teenager. She has such an attitude ALREADY and does things just to test my patience, that I seriously might send her away when she's a teenager!!!

We went to Olive Garden with Ryan's parents last night and I gave Hailey one of the Andes mints that they give you with your check. I told her just to put it all in her mouth so she didn't make a mess. She gave me this look - this "try-and-make-me" look - and said "Um, nope. I bite."

And she took this little teeny tiny bite! She made the dang thing last for 10 minutes! I was trying to clean her hands, and she had just a little teensie bit left. I asked her to just please put the rest in her mouth. She looked at me and said "Ummmmm, no" and took a TINY bite. I finally took it from her and put it in her mouth. She screamed at me, took it out of her mouth, and took another TINY bite. Seriously.....

This morning, I asked her if she was done with her breakfast (after she had destroyed her peanut butter toast). I asked her 3 times:

Mom: Hailey, are you done with your breakfast?
Hailey: Ummmmmmm, yep.
Mom: Are you sure? Are you sure you are done?
Hailey: I done!
Mom: Hailey, are you SURE you are done with your breakfast? Are you sure you're done?
Hailey: Mama, I DONE! I DONE!

So I took this mean that she was done. My mistake. I took the crumbs that were left and threw them in the garbage. Then the tantrum started. She started screaming at me. "MAMA! FOOD! BACK! NOW!" I offered her strawberries. "MAMA! FOOD! BACK! NOW!" I offered her another piece of bread. "MAMA! FOOD! BACK! NOW!" I finally just cleaned her up and put her down, still screaming. She tried to get into the garbage can to get her food. I picked her up and tried to explain-over the screaming-that the food was yucky now and we could eat again later. She looked at the phone and said "Call daddy." So I dialed Ryan's work number. She got on the phone with him and said "Hello daddy. Mad at mama."

Bad Dreams...

The other night, after Hailey had been in bed for about an hour she woke up screaming!!

I ran upstairs to check on her and she was standing in her crib reaching to me just sobbing! I picked her up and she was shaking and screaming about falling. It broke my heart, I almost started crying myself. I took her to my room to rock her for a little bit until she calmed down. She was shaking for about 20 minutes. When I took her back to bed, she whimpered a bit, but went to sleep pretty quick after that.

Now this hasn't happened since, however, she still sometimes freaks out a bit when I put her to bed. In fact this afternoon, I put her down for her nap, she started whimpering and breathing really hard and wanted me to rock with her. She kept talking about falling down the stairs. She held onto me pretty tight until she was almost asleep. I feel really bad for her...I'm not sure what to do. I've never really heard of kids this little having nightmares, or being aware of heights...is this common?

{potty training adventures}

I'm sure all you mom's out there have a million stories like this...

So Hailey's almost 2, so I figure its about time to start potty training. The first step is getting her interested, which she has been for some time now. We bought her her own little potty seat, and she loves to sit on it (fully clothed of course) while I go to the bathroom. She loves to sit on Elijah's potty seat at his house. She'll sit there for hours (well maybe not hours...more like minutes...) as long as she's fully clothed. But the minute you take her pants and diaper off and really try to get her to go...she gets ants in her pants (so to speak)!

Well the other day, she had assumed the position so I knew she was about to poop. I quickly grabbed her and took her to the bathroom and told her we were going to poop on the potty today. She was very excited! A little too excited, I think. True to form, the minute I took her diaper off, she couldn't sit on the potty for more than about 4 seconds. She'd sit, then she'd take a lap around the stairs. Then she'd sit, then dance around the bathroom for a few minutes. I knew this couldn't go on forever, she had assumed the position, not minutes earlier. So I waited, and kept encouraging her to sit on the potty to go poo-poo. After about 5 minutes of the sitting, then dancing/running around, she came in the bathroom.

Then it happened. No, she didn't go poo-poo in the potty.

She knelt down NEXT to the potty and...

POOPED ON THE FLOOR!

That's right, folks. She was inches, if not millimeters away from the potty, and she pooped on the floor.

Gross.

Nuf said.

Any other MOM's with me??

Ok, so I know you are all going to tell me this is NORMAL 2 year old behavior. I understand that 2 year olds are belligerent and challenging, but I don't know what to do!!

First of all: this "NO!" word has to go!! (Anyone else with me on that one??) I ask her to stop doing something, or to do something and she, more often than not, screams "NO!" Its INFURIATING! And not acceptable! How do you get them to learn that it is not acceptable behavior?

Second: the "MINE!" needs to be banished as well. (I can't be alone on that one either) I was very careful when I was teaching Hailey how to talk that I RARELY, if EVER said something was "mine." I usually said something like "Mommy's" or "Hailey's" I didn't want her to pick up "MINE!" But low and behold, she learned it anyway. I'm sure this was a inevitability, but I hoped (vainly) that the fact I didn't teach it to her would help.

Third: the ATTITUDE. The "what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it-mom" looks. The rolling the eyes. The stomping and screaming. I thought that this attitude wouldn't come until we were in the pre-teens. Guess I'm in trouble. If she's this bad when she's not even 2....I don't even want to know what she's going to be like when she's 12!

Now, I don't believe in spanking as a primary form of discipline, but I will admit that I do use it on occasion. ONLY AFTER everything else has failed. Sometimes it is the ONLY thing that gets through to her. I don't enjoy it, by any means. So if any moms have any other suggestions, I'M ALL EARS! I'm not ready to go gray yet...but I'm about there!