Extra Double Happy: June 2010

As soon as I post something, I think of more things I wanted to say:

- There's not much terrible about Mae's twos. For the most part she is easy-going, happy and willing to give up her way or things to keep other people happy. She has started asking me if I'm happy (usually when I'm angry or frustrated) and, after Adi has had a meltdown, she'll ask her "are you happy now, Adi?"

- She continues to be very outgoing. In fact, she has invited several people from daycare and playgroup to dinner at our house, or to sleep at our house (including offering up the master bedroom, saying that we could sleep downstairs so our guests would have a place to stay). Her adoration of other people's strollers has also led to the proposal that she should go home with another mom and I can take their kid home. I'm not taking it personally ;)

Mae seems to enjoy relaying stories. Often, she will give a recap of what just happened, for instance:

You were saying 'come to the table' and I was saying 'no, no! I need to get my Annie.'
and you were saying 'lunch is ready' and I was getting my Annie and I got my Annie and we came to the table for lunch!, finishing with a proud smile-- not sure if she's proud of telling the story or of getting to the table as requested.

Dave noticed that she uses her hands to talk a lot, usually swirling her right hand in the air as if propelling the story along or holding up both hands to the side and shaking them for emphasis. Neither of us seem to talk with our hands so we're not sure where this comes from. It must be the Italian ancestory... except we don't have any.

She seems to be spontaneously polite, adding 'please' and 'thank you' without being asked and continuing to thank us, unprompted, for things like making breakfast, or to thank Adi for giving her a toy back. She is equally generous in her actions; although she purposely grabs toys from Adi just to make her mad, she also spontaneously shares and will get Adi's favorite toy if she's crying. One day at the playground, I commented to another mom that I wished I had brought a hair rubberband because the wind was blowing my hair in my face and Mae promptly pulled out her ponytail holder and gave it to me.

Also, she likes to show off her favorite toys by giving them to other kids. However, she is very possessive of her doll, perhaps showing a good mothering instinct (although given how often the baby gets dropped on her head, I'm glad there are a good many years before she can be a mother!)

It really does seem to delight her to get a rise out of Adi, though. One of the behavior issues we've been dealing with is that she'll roar at Adi when she's mad, or just wants to have fun. This doesn't seem like it is a big deal but, given the reaction it receives, we've made the rule that "you can't roar at people." (Never saw that one in the parenting books!). Mae does really like to roar, in general and has since it was the first animal sound she could make (see the bottom of this post, so we don't want to limit her self-expression but it seems to have crossed the line into rudeness. I've also seen her push Adi to the ground or hit her, and seem to enjoy the effect (Adi screaming). It seems she is also doing little, hidden things to make Adi mad so we've been talking about being nice to people. It is astonishing to have her tell me that she wanted to make Adi feel bad, but I guess that's not unusual for a two-year old.

She is definitely experimenting with whining, especially when she is tired, but she is capable of turning it into a sweet sing-song even mid-sentence when we say we don't understand whining. When we are getting ready for bed, she'll suddenly loll around on the floor, saying "I'm very tired;" too tired, in fact, to get her pajamas on by herself. When motivated, she can entirely dress herself (maybe needing help with a few buttons) and put her shoes on- now even on the right feet!

One of her most advanced skills is that of comparison, in order to explain what she's talking about to me. The first instance I noticed was when she was eating a lollipop with a ridge and asked me if that was a 'skin'. I didn't understand what she meant so she said, 'you know, a skin, like on an apple.' And now she is frequently saying that something is like something else-- often the similarities are lost on me. She's also noticing rhyming: a 'hotel' is like 'show and tell'. She'll ask if something rhymes; I'm not sure she understands what it means.

And smells- for the first time she's commenting on smells-- she really doesn't like bathroom deodorizers!

And another first-- when drawing on plain paper last month, she drew a "bear": a closed circle with dots for eyes & nose, and two stick legs! We were very impressed.