The Terrible Two’s

Posted by kara

I think Toshi has entered her version of the Terrible Two’s. So far (knock on wood), it hasn’t been bad. I call it her Terrible Two phase because I can tell she is totally testing us, seeing what the consequences are, and figuring out if she can fix it afterward.

Usually, the struggle is at mealtime, but this can be applied to a number of things: getting ready to leave, cleaning up a mess, washing hands, changing her diaper. It gets exhausting. We ask her to do something and she refuses. Or, she does something she knows she isn’t supposed to do, and then sees that we aren’t happy. She asks, “Are you happy, Daddy/Mommy?” We say no. She sometimes offers up a kiss and then asks, “Are you happy now?” We ask her to clean up her mess. She cleans it up. Then asks, “Are you happy now?” And we tell her that we’d be really happy if she would listen the first time. Sometimes she knows she did something bad and I can tell she feels bad. She’ll run into her room and just lay down on the floor. I just hope that I’m doing a good job disciplining. Only time will tell?

Anyway, it’s not nearly as bad as it could be (knock on wood). It just takes forever to get Toshi to get something done! It took me nearly all morning to get her to pick up the crayons she dumped on the floor. Oy.