Terrible Twos or Maybe Not

After a week of suffering Lily showed signs of improvement on Tuesday. I feel bad for her not feeling well but she sure was in rare form. One time she was watching her favorite cartoon "Bob, the builder" and she would look away from the TV and point at her milk and scream, "milk" in the most pathetic whining voice you have ever hear. Then she would look back at the TV, stop screaming and then look back at the milk and scream. I never knew what she wanted.

It started when she got a hold of a cracker and some germ on the same day. So she had a combo adverse reaction to the cracker and cold. Poor girl. But, we were all quite miserable. So, Tuesday she was great, no screaming the whole day. She seemed human again. At the time I swear it felt like the best day of my life. We talked, we read, we sang, it was all good. So Wednesday it gymnastics and I thought, hey she is better we can go to gymnastics, but really what I forgot was that this is the 5th Wednesday of the month and that means no gymnastics. Last week we missed from the above mentioned sickness and she had been cooped up at home for over a week.

All morning I was talking about gymnastics. At breakfast, "let's finish our banana because we have gymnastics" all the way out the door, "let's get in the car it is time to go to gymnastics". One time, a couple of weeks ago, on the way to gymnastics I thought I could run a quick errand, but who knew that a two year old knows where the turn to gymnastics is and will scream like an alligator bit off her leg if you drive past that turn when you have specifically told her we are on our way to gymnastics. No, today I drove directly to gymnastics. At the door, I kinda remember the 5th week thing but put it out of my mind due to the fact that the door was not locked and there were people in the gym. So there we are getting our shoes off when Miss Jessie tells us, "no gymnastics today, it is the 5th week". I am preparing myself for the screams, which really isn't anything new to the gym, Lily tends to dislike being told what to do and when to do it so we spend a lot of time hearing her piercing screams at gymnastics. So, there is sweet pretty little Miss Lily sitting down patiently holding out her foot to me, saying "shoe off, shoe off" I picked her up and said, "Weasel's Den". This is the spot where we picked up the offending cracker and germs, but it is Miss Lily's favorite spot on earth. It is an indoor play area, due to the fact we have some pretty bad weather here pretty much most of the time.

"I am so sorry sweetie, there is no gymnastics today, let's go to the Weasel's Den, let's go play in the jumpy castle, let's go play with the ball, I love the Weasel's Den" somehow magically this worked and I swooped her to the car, in some pretty outrageously freezing wind. There was no screaming, no fits, just sweet little Miss Lily. So we went to the Weasel's Den. Guess what? It doesn't open for another half an hour. I had taken her out of the car seat, into the freezing wind, and we had walked all the way from the parking lot to the door, only to discover, not open till 10. I am really worried now. What do I do, take her back to the car and listen to the radio for a half and hour? No Lily is not especially fond of her car seat. So I explain to her that it is not yet open and we have to go to the thrift store. I have no idea if she understands me, but she goes along, no worries. We arrive at the thrift store and she was a bit distraught at first until I showed her the toy section. We browsed for half and hour and then went back to the Weasel's Den. I actually was able to drop off the several bags of outgrown clothes that have been in the back of my truck for weeks, so bonus.

Back at the Den we are the only ones there. We played for an hour just the two of us. We jumped in the castle, we went to the indoor soccer field and kicked the ball. We ran and laughed and had a blast. Then just when I am ready to go and pick up a few things at the store, in order to make it home in time for her lunch and nap, just then a ton of kids arrive. A ton of kids her age. So we played for another hour. She had so much fun, but she was exhausted. I still had to go to the store, so I finally had to catch her in the castle and drag her to the car. Still no fits. We shopped and drove home, by now we were an hour and a half past lunch time and a ½ hour past nap time. Still no fits. She did tell me about 100 things she wanted to eat when she got home, and all the hellos she wanted to say to her stuffed animals. So we arrived home, ate and took a nap, finally she screamed, but just for a minute because the girl was so exhausted.

So I am starting to think that her screaming fits from hell are more a result of discomfort from her adverse reaction to certain foods, than a result of being stubborn or terribly two. Not entirely but mostly.