Who says the Terrible Twos can't start a year early?

This little girl has some serious personality. She really has it in her head that things should always go her way. Dan thinks we've spoiled her, and he might be right. It's just hard to transition from her being a baby whose desires should almost always be met (because most desires are basic physical needs), to a toddler who doesn't have much of a say. If we've spoiled her, some of it can be blamed on the accident. We certainly coddled her for a while after that - we worried that she had a headache or was scared or something. And we were so grateful that she was still ours to hold, we wanted to hold on extra tight. So I was much more willing to pick her up whenever she cried, let her sleep in our bed, etc. Or maybe she was just born with this temperament. For whatever reason, she is now quite opinionated and determined to have her way! Those personality traits may be good for her in the long run, but they are making my days harder in the meantime!

She is especially opinionated about food. She won't let me feed her anymore. The other day I finally had enough of her just not eating anything but finger food, and handed her the spoon. She actually ate quite a bit...but insisted on using the spoon backwards. I tried to show her how to do it the right way, and she threw a mini-fit, and grabbed the wrong end again.

Oh, and she's picky about what she'll eat, too. I frequently have to decide between her eating semi-junk food, or not eating at all. She'd rather not eat than eat cheerios or any fruit. At this age David started getting his own peaches from the fridge and eating them whole. I try giving her cut up grapes, strawberries, apples, bananas...anything we have, and none of it gets eaten. I give her healthy cereal for breakfast, and she hardly touches it. If I break down and give her Lucky Charms, she picks out the marshmallows! At one year old! She'll eat some of the sweet cereal, too, but not until she's made sure she's eaten all the good stuff.

She also is quite opinionated about what she wants to do. If anyone opens the front or back door and doesn't let Katy out, she gets quite upset! But if I go do yard work and want her outside, she tries to get back in. She also tries to get down to the playroom, which I totally understand. And I'd let her go if she wasn't still very much in her oral phase! I don't need her to have another (it would be her fourth) trip to the hospital because she ate a lego or something. I have so many fun Katy toys in the living room, and for the most part she wants nothing to do with them. The only toys Katy ever wants to play with are Molly's, then she shrieks when Molly tries to get them back (and poor Molly just thinks Katy is squeaking her toys to play with her!). Or occasionally she'll get a hold of my cell phone...that's fun, too.



Last Saturday we went to Aunt Nadine & Uncle Scott's house to see the kittens. And Katy was such a pill! She wanted to look at the kittens pretty much the entire time. Sometimes she was good and just looked, but I had to be constantly watching to make sure she didn't grab the tiny little baby kitties. And if I tried to take her away, more screaming. She knew what she wanted, and leaving the kitties was not it!

Silly little Katy. You are lucky you are so darn cute.