Christmas!

Wow, Christmas has come and gone and now we are looking to the New Year! I looked back over some pictures from my work holiday party and compared from last year to this year. It is amazing to me how my little Bee has become a little girl! The changes in her are so apparent when I look at the photos side by side. (I felt I need to share what I was looking at so they are to the left!) While the face is not all that different, just a little less baby fat, the hair is really what stands out. She just looks like such a little girl now and it made me sad to think my little baby is gone! I know she is still my baby and still very young but it's somehow different. She's still gorgeous though!

It's been a great year with her! There have been some difficult times and some behavior problems but over the last couple of weeks she has been really good. I hate to say that ignoring something makes it go away, because usually that is not the case, but really when it came to not calling attention to the biting, hitting, tantrums and such that it seems to have really made a difference. I am so proud of her for being such a good little girl! So, because it's the end of the year I wanted to end on some good stuff!
Over the last few weeks we have had developments in:

Saying her ABC's - she can sing them, though she skips some letters and muddies the words at the end. She loves to sing them and is really trying. Every few days she gets one more distinctive letter in there. It's so cute and we caught it the other day on the camcorder. I can't wait to look back at that when she is older.

Saying her numbers - We have to get her started through three because she usually gets hung on saying "1, 2, 1" but once we help her get past it she can count to 10. She did it for everyone on Christmas Day and I felt so proud of her when they were all excited to hear her say them.

Saying "I Love You" - Now, this one we have been working on for a looonnggg time! I am proud to say that she now makes the words out, all three of them, instead of making it one long jumbled word.

Moving to her "big girl bed" - it is just a toddler day bed but she is doing very well. She does not get out and make a big deal out of not going to bed. I think this is because we changed the bed, said here is your big girl bed but we never made a big deal of her NOT getting out of it. So..my thinking is that it never really put the thought in her head that staying in her bed was a big deal drama thing. It has been working out well. She gets out of her bed in the morning and comes and gets us when she is up. She's doing good in it. (I hope I didn't just jinx us!)

With the new year comes.....potty training! This scares me to death! I bought her some training underwear. We are not going to keep going with the pull-ups because she refers to them as diapers and I think she needs to make the distinction between diapers and big girl underwear. I am sure there will be no shortage of things to blog about once we start this weekend. We decided that after the new year is when we would start since she just transitioned from her crib, to a new room at daycare and we were dealing with Christmas. So..wish us luck and I am sure you will be hearing about it soon!

Have a Happy New Year!!! Lots of love and well wishes to all of your families!

Bad Behavior, Tantrums and whining, Oh My!

Well, the last couple of weeks have been tough. Little Bee has developed split personalities! In one minute she is the sweetest, kindest, most loving little girl there is. She plays and strokes my hair, gives me hugs, tells me she loves me, all the little things that sugary sweet little girls do. The next minute, oh my, a little monster is standing in front of me telling me no, sassing while pointing her finger at me and hitting me! And a few times when I have asked her if she wanted to go to the naughty seat she said, "yes!!" Yesterday (and let me preface this by saying that a friend of mine, who has a little girl just a few weeks older than Bee, said her daughter did this and I thought in my head that there is no way MY child would ever do this, well boy was I wrong) little Bee was being a little monster and not picking up her toys. I told her she was going to go to the naughty seat, so what does she do? She said "okay" and walked over and sat herself in the naughty seat!!! I thought I was going to die! Everyone keeps saying "oh, she's only 2, she doesn't know what she's saying or doing" but I am sorry folks, that child is a lot smarter than you give her credit for! All of the parenting advice I read says to stay calm, don't react to it, don't engage. Don't engage? Don't engage while the child has thrown themselves on the ground screaming "No, mommy" while all of the windows are open! Or is screaming through the grocery store because I won't let her smash the bread! Yeah right! How am I supposed to remain sane and calm through all of that? And don't even get me started on the whining! She can not ask for anything with out whining! I do as all the reading says and say, "I can't understand whining, you need to use your big girl words" or "You need to ask mommy nicely and say please." When I try to talk to people about it I hear, yet again, "she's just a baby" or "she is still so young give her a break" Give ME a break! Sorry, but learning manners has no age limitation!!!! I just want this period to pass and to have back my sweet little helper who did anything I asked of her! Where did that child go???? I feel as though, since I have been venting, that I need to say that I love my child very much and she is frankly the reason for everything I do now! But, really, the two's is tough!! And please don't say, "You'll see, the three's are worse and so are the four's," blah, blah, blah, let me wallow in my own whining!!