Give me strength.

"What's enon!  Mommy! Mommy!"

I have no idea what she is saying.  I get about 85% of what she is saying but 'enon'?  No clue.  I sometimes look into her eyes to see if I can see the tiny demon inside. See this picture?  There's a demon in there somewhere.

Ivy's speaking in tongues again, and squishing her breakfast, oatmeal, between her fingers, spreading it recklessly over the table.  "Dirty! Dirty!"  She complains, she suddenly hates to have dirty hands even though she purposefully made them that way when she squished oatmeal between her fingers.  But now it's my problem.

And then the freak out over the "fly" that's landed on her arm.  I calmly explain that the "fly" is really a piece of oatmeal that she has flung there during her assault on her breakfast.  She looks at me as if to say "You may be right but I'm going to freak out anyway".

The egg gets no better treatment, torn into small pieces and then squished, a fine sprinkling decorating the smeared, dried-on oatmeal.  Some days she'll eat an egg in 2 minutes, and even ask for more.  Today, the egg is the enemy and the breakfast table is the battle ground.

She's taken to storing food in her cheek, and it's not even that it's food she doesn't like or won't swallow, it's just all of a sudden a good place to keep the last of the oatmeal that made it into her mouth.  Twenty minutes after she has gotten down from the table, I'll notice it still in there when she's talking.  Here you have to be really careful.  Calling attention to the cheek food may result in her showing it to me by spitting it out.

The books say that my toddler is engaged in tactile exploration and sensory experimentation, and who the heck would discourage that??  They, however, do not have to clean up my dining room floor.

Comments

[Alice]

What is that Derek always says? Terrible Two? Maybe just thinking about when you were just realizing the power of your existence and trying to have your voice be heard would help? Oh wait, that's the TEENAGE years. Imagine all the fun you have to look forward to! :P

That's what I am here for - let's go have a drink soon!

[Chris]

Here's a link to an image for you:

Demons Inside

Hmm.. looks like html tags don't get rendered.

If that doesn't display, just use this link:

http://greenlock.com/images/di.jpg