Her Personality Develops

Elizabeth warned me about donning Ellie "The Princess". I should have listened.

"The Princess" is rearing her royal personality as of late. I posted on Facebook that "Two year olds are not terrible, but they are terribly exhausting." By 8:30, I'm ready to hit the hay lately. It's from running around behind "The Princess" trying to keep her out of trouble/destruction mode.

Just this week I found ink on the bathroom wall, ink on the couch, ink on the living room wall, LIP BALM on the windows and crayon on furniture. She colored her legs with a green Sharpie and the marks are still there -- no matter how much I scrub.

You might say that I need to "put up the markers, crayons, pens". Well, yes, that would be great except that there are no hiding places that she can't find -- I promise. She is a crafty/cunning little one. And, having an older brother who does homework and a mom who works at the kitchen table and a dad who has a desk that is accessible makes it ALL TOO EASY for her to find all kind of goodies to "write" with. It's her favorite thing. I hear it many times a day, "I write."

I've tried having her scrub the wall -- she thinks it's fun to clean. *sigh*

And then there is the "BUY IT!" mentality she has recently developed. She wanted to color with her Color Wonder coloring book but all her markers were either gone or dried up. I told her we didn't have any markers and she replied, "Go to store and BUY IT, Mama". Right. Today, she found the Toys R Us circular laying on the kitchen table. HOW did she know that it was all toys??? We don't go there. I'm not sure she's EVER been there. She grabbed it right up, TOOK IT WITH HER TO PRESCHOOL!!! and continuously named almost every toy in there, all the way to school, ending it with, "Buy it, mama!!" She wants Dora stickers for her helmet for the Trike-A-Thon. I told her we would get some before that day. She replied, "Mama go to the store and buy it." Very matter of fact. Ugh.

Then there is the "stage" that is flat driving me NUTS. I call it the "HUH?" stage. Everything I say, she turns around with a blank look and says, "Huh?" I'll repeat myself and she'll turn back around to me and say, "Huh?" If I'm crazy enough to repeat myself a third time, she'll probably say "Huh?" again. It's maddening. Suggestions on that one are welcome!!

And then there is the NO! NO! NO! I not want it; I not want to; I not tired rantings that we are hearing a lot of now. She doesn't want to eat what we fix; she does not want to wear the clothes we pick out; she does not want to take a bath; she does not want to go to bed. She has such an independent streak -- miles wide!!

But, of all the strong personality traits I've mentioned, I do have to croon that we are 75% potty trained. Mama still needs more training, but Ellie is doing well. She has worn panties to preschool for two days and has had no accidents. We are still doing a pull-up at nap time because I pick her up right after nap and often have to drive around a lot after that, so I don't want to set her up for an accident. We use a pull up at night as well. For some reason, she seems to have a few more accidents at home, but I think she gets so busy having fun that she doesn't WANT to stop and go potty.

Now, if I could JUST get her to sleep until 8:00 on the weekends ...

Her vocabulary and speech have just blossomed overnight. Sometimes I do have to stop and actively listen to understand her, but it's usually because she's reeling off something complex that I can't follow too well, but overall she is a jibber-jabbering girl (especially at home), saying words that I wonder where she's even heard them. Today she was pointing out (and saying) skateboards in the Toys R Us catalog. Tonight I told her she couldn't go outside because she was naked. She looked at me funny and I said, "That's when you have no clothes on." She said, "Oh." She tried to repeat it but didn't succeed well. Hopefully, I won't hear about that one tomorrow after school!! I'm certain she is going to talk my ears off in years to come.