Will She Always Be a Terrible Two?

This post is about the one that looks sweet as pumpkin pie with beautiful curls. Her name is Olivia. But you probably knew that already.


Olivia has been a terrible two most of her life, except the first few weeks of it. She came out of the womb beautiful and peaceful. And she slept. A lot. She didn't cry too much at all. Fast forward to about the fourth week and becoming aware of her situation with open space around her and cue the crying. She could never be left in a room by herself. Additionally, she was the actual baby in the house so I showered her with all my attention, and I didn't know if she would be my last. I gave her my all.

She remained cranky. Two steps out of her direction and it was over. So then we thought, hey, maybe it is because she isn't mobile and once she started crawling we would have a much happier child among us. Nope. Worse. Then, well, maybe when she starts walking and talking. Nope. Much more worse.

Don't get me wrong. Olivia is pure entertainment in our house. She is so much fun ... at times. We'll be hitting three in February, and I hope we can get a clear understanding if this is how she's going to be in the coming years or if we can somehow change it, or maybe it will just change on its own.

She's hot and cold. And, we don't know when she's going to be hot or when she's going to be cold. That one can just flip a switch at any moment and I swear sometimes I'm overly cautious when I talk to her because I don't know how she is going to react.

The newest topper of the cake? These words: I'm mad at you! She says this more to us than other words. Try to reason with her, and she has no reason for being mad. I'm choosing to ignore it and see what happens. Walk away.

This stage? I hope it passes fairly quickly and we move on to something else...though i fear what could come next. We've already gone through the stages of hitting, kicking and spitting. And now we are onto words that kind of stab you in the heart. I have to admit that maybe expressing herself with words is better than the physical action she used to take, but oh my.

Did I mention that at one time Olivia's daycare provider called her the "daycare bully"?