Monica is just so two-and-a-half right now...in good ways and challenging ways. We're having a lot of fun doing projects together, like coloring, making birthday cards and baking bread. Like most toddlers, she's really curious and loves to touch and taste everything, as evidenced by the picture of her below, after she got into the whole wheat flour and decided to eat handfulls of it...weird.
This time is also challenging because she is becoming a lot more verbally creative and also a lot more creative in her defiance. Yet, I'm frequently reminded that she still needs to mature in communication skills. We still experience some really cro magnon-like moments. Lately, in our house, when the going gets tough, the tough get screaming. Monica's been a shrieker since she was four months old, and we're going through one of those phases again. Whether she needs to transition out of playing with a toy, to eat, to sleep or just can't get her slippers on, there is often ear-piercing, blood-curdling screaming. We're working on directing her toward other frustration-outlets, but it is a process, and it seems pretty slow sometimes. Monica has also taken a lot more interest in James lately, probably because he has taken a lot more interest in her toys! He is still not crawling or scooting, so he can't do a whole lot to defend himself when she comes at him to take whatever he has, besides screaming and waving his arms. And he does a lot of that while Monica is putting him in one of her vice-grip hugs around his head or neck. (Another skill to work on: appropriate and gentle affection.) But just the other day, we were at the local hands-on museum and I realized how quickly she is growing and changing. The way she can run and jump and play now, compared to even just after James was born is amazingly more complex. I am so grateful and humbled to be a part of my children's lives, even in the tensest of shriek-laden moments.
This time is also challenging because she is becoming a lot more verbally creative and also a lot more creative in her defiance. Yet, I'm frequently reminded that she still needs to mature in communication skills. We still experience some really cro magnon-like moments. Lately, in our house, when the going gets tough, the tough get screaming. Monica's been a shrieker since she was four months old, and we're going through one of those phases again. Whether she needs to transition out of playing with a toy, to eat, to sleep or just can't get her slippers on, there is often ear-piercing, blood-curdling screaming. We're working on directing her toward other frustration-outlets, but it is a process, and it seems pretty slow sometimes. Monica has also taken a lot more interest in James lately, probably because he has taken a lot more interest in her toys! He is still not crawling or scooting, so he can't do a whole lot to defend himself when she comes at him to take whatever he has, besides screaming and waving his arms. And he does a lot of that while Monica is putting him in one of her vice-grip hugs around his head or neck. (Another skill to work on: appropriate and gentle affection.) But just the other day, we were at the local hands-on museum and I realized how quickly she is growing and changing. The way she can run and jump and play now, compared to even just after James was born is amazingly more complex. I am so grateful and humbled to be a part of my children's lives, even in the tensest of shriek-laden moments. 
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