Terrible Twos

I have never known anyone like Lily. She is amazing in her love of life and in her compacity to defy me. Today at gymnastics she spent as much time executing her moves flawlessly as she did screaming and running in the other direction. She has managed to escape the house and run through the neighborhood in nothing but a diaper. She learned to climb on top of the dinning room table by 10 months. It took six months to teach her to walk to the playground and home again without running away or throwing a fit. My neighbors love me. So I took some time off from school and spent it one on one teaching Lily some basic behavior. Now I would say she is a typical two year old. While we still have defiance and fits it is managable. So I am back at school. I am so thankful that Lily is only head strong and we were able to get past it with structure and patience. So many people are not able to do this and have such difficult heartbreaking struggles. Even though this is just typical terrible twos I get so much unasked for advice and judgement my heart goes out to parents whose children don't respond to behavior modification stratagies.

My defiant Little Miss Lily. It is so funny to see what a combination of mom and dad she is. She sings to herself while concentrating (mom). She loves life with abandon (dad). We are split on deciding which of us gave her the stuborn fit throwing difficult gene, since this is my blog, here we will say that it comes from dad, but most people say that comes from me. My sweet Mandy was potty trainned by two, she ate with a spoon and drank from a cup. Umm, let's just say not Miss Lily.

I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, especially when the other moms at gymnastics make nasty comments about her constant defiance. Just when I think I have it bad, there but for the grace of God go I. A friend of mine just gave birth to her third baby in three years. It hasn't even been a month yet. Last week her oldest (her defiant one) decided to get out of bed during her nap and take the sleeping new baby to the playground. Mom was asleep too. Neighbors called the cops.