Growing up

Most of the time it seems Ani desperately wants to be older, but is continually frustrated by her inability to get us to understand what she is saying, asking, or DEMANDING to happen RIGHTNOWFORCHRISSAKE. Of course, it doesn't help that she wants to do everything herself -- "SELF! SELF! Ahn-kuh do it SELF!!" -- which makes any task or activity take approximately five kazillion hours longer than it should, which then frustrates her even further, etc. etc. ad nauseum. And then there are the times she wishes desperately to be a baby, to "snuggle. couch. mama," to sit on daddy's lap while she barely eats one bite of dinner, to pinch and pinch and pinch my neck some more in order to fall asleep.

I can relate, as I often vacillate between missing my little baby to wishing she could just poop in the toilet, sleep the night through in her own bed, and make herself a pb and j every once in awhile. It is bittersweet when she sings Twinkle Twinkle to her baby dolls ("Kwinkle kwinkle" as she says), "cooks" in her pretend kitchen (It's almost done - "almost!" - being her favorite phrase...gee, wonder where she hears that from?) and leans over Reni, kisses his head, and says, "Reni, I love you." She is, in her eyes at least, and occasionally in mine, at once way too big and at the same time still too little.

No matter how you flip it or flop it, growing up is hard to do.

Today we reached a huge milestone, however. She was trying to take off her pajamas and her diaper this morning, and since I was feeding Reni some peach rice pudding (his favorite...this kid can EAT!) Armando did the usual (do you want to use the potty?) after which she surprisingly replied "yes!" He rushed her there, then nonchalantly waltzed into the kitchen and said, "she peed in her potty."

WHAT?! You didn't shower her in praises!? I worked quickly to smother her in "WOW, such a BIG GIRL!" phrases and made a big show of creating a sticker chart to hang in the bathroom.

After which she torn down the sign, marched into the kitchen, rummaged through my desk to find the tape (oops, should NOT have shown her where that was or what it was for), and marched back to the bathroom to hang it up herself ("SELF! SELF!!")

Then, not ten minutes later, she pooped so much into the Dora pull-ups that I nearly lost my breakfast. I do not recommend pull-ups for Number Two, in case you were wondering.

Ok, I thought, no pull-up, no problemo. Let's let the girl air it out a bit and get the hang of the feeling that she's got to go.

Then, about an hour later, she peed all over the kitchen floor. Then danced in the puddle, splashing around and giggling and trying to paint Reni's head with it.

At once, too big and yet way too little. And, also, EW.