My Baby Girl Turned into a Toddler!

My little baby girl, Clarissa, is the precious baby I dress in pink almost every day. She's my sweet girl, after having a boy that always wants Daddy. (Even while I was nursing him, he preferred Daddy over Mommy!) She's always been very attached to me - not even wanting Daddy to hold her until recently.

THEN....

She started walking and, therefore, spending more time with her older brother. My son, Josue, will be 3 next month, and he certainly has had his "Terrible Twos." Temper tantrums galore. Hitting his little sister. Saying NO with as much attitude as possible. Screaming. Of course, most of the time he was still sweet, and incredibly cute. Learning to talk and such. But he was DIFFICULT. Still is. :)

Clarissa is now starting to act like Josue - she hits him back, throws herself on the floor when she doesn't get her way, says "No" all day long. *sigh* And she's only 19 months old! I think she's starting her Terrible Twos a bit early because of the influence of her older brother.

She's still my sweet girl though. :) She loves Mommy and Daddy and if she gets in trouble she wants to hold us and hug us.

So why are there the Terrible Twos? I believe the kids are so frustrated because they know (exactly) what they want, but they can't communicate effectively. Clarissa tries to talk - her words are beginning to be understandable (to me anyway). If I 'interpret' her words, she gets really happy that I figured out what she said. She knows if she wants milk or juice, and which cup she wants it in. She knows that she can do her own buckle on her high chair, and gets really upset if I take away that independant act by doing it myself. She knows that she doesn't like getting up in the morning before she's ready to - she's much rather be sleeping with her Winnie-the-Pooh blankie. How do I know she knows these things? She throws a fit if I cross her on these things. She can't say, "I can do the buckle myself! Let me do it!" (Not yet - I'm sure she'll learn to tell me so.) But she can cry and look angry, and that gets the point across.

So instead of getting frustrated because she's throwing a fit, I try to understand that she's simply communicating in the only way she knows how. Plus, she's learning wonderful habits from her brother.