"No...I don't want it!"

We are on the countdown till The Wee One's birthday. She officially turns 2 in a couple of weeks and while we've been seeing signs of the "terrible two's" for a while, this week has been especially challenging.

At first, you think it is wonderful when your child learns to talk. All the new things they can express and tell you about, even in their fragmented sentence structure. Then they start figuring out that they can use this new-found vocabulary to reject things, and pout, and make you want to pull your hair out. I really do think it is part of their twisted plot to get us back for keeping them cramped up inside us for so long. Don't they realize that that process was just as uncomfortable for us (if not more so)? Gheesh!

Anyway, the past two weeks have brought a series of new phrases and words into our home. "Ewww, nasty." "Nasty, gross." "Mine." "Knock, come in." "Someone at door." "Cited for scuela (Excited for school/escuela)." Mostly pretty cute.

Then we got the not-so-cute ones..."Arrrr, oh shit." Yeah, she said it. Fortunately, it only lasted 2 days, and I'm hoping doesn't make a reappearance for a few years. (Is it sad that it was kind of funny/cute when I first heard it? Be proud of me...even thought it was kind of funny, I did not laugh!).

Then the dreaded, "No...I don't want it!" Sometimes she leaves out the "I" for extra irritation. I mean, really, if you are gonna whine, at least whine in a sentence. That one has not left so quickly.

Pretty much everything this week has received this lovely phrase. To top it off, she has one of those typically cute, high, sweet voices. Not so cute or sweet when the high pitch is used to whine. She has also started to do a little dance with the phrase. That's lovely. I mean the dance is kind of cute, but it's being used as a whine so it loses it's cuteness very quickly.

I'm not sure if it is all the weather changes, the fact that she started back to Mother's Day Out last week, the fact that she's turning the corner to official toddler-hood, if she's teething, or if she's not feeling well like everyone around us, or a combination of all of the above (that's my bet really). Regardless the reason, it is driving The Husband and I crazy. She has had a lot of timeouts this week and some early bedtimes. After reading a friend's blog this morning, I'm beginning to think it's just something in the air. Her children are at least at ages that you can reason with (in theory). At my little precious' age, we can try some amount of reasoning, but let's face it, a 2 year old isn't exactly high up the level of cognitive communication.

For now, we will fight it out and ultimately, The Husband and I will win, although I anticipate some ugly battles in the near future. Lord, give me strength (for real!).