Terrible Horrible Two's

Have you ever heard someone with a young child ask what happened to their sweet little angel baby? If not, let me be the first. "What happened to my sweet little angel baby?!" Whoever said the twos are terrible was spot on. When Baby Bean was born, and all during the first two years of her life I thought maybe I would be one of those lucky parents who escaped the Terrible Twos. But on second thought, have you ever heard of parents who did?

Baby Bean is definitely a patience tester lately. Grade A, Class 1. She is The Girl Who Cried Wolf so often, we never know when to take her seriously.

Thankfully when she throws a tantrum, they are more of the silent sort, or the crying sort. We don't have any where she throws herself on the floor while screaming and crying while pounding her fists, and we don't have the kind where she does "the limp noodle" in our arms. But we have the kind where she says, "No!" and stomps her foot. When she cries, she cries like it is the end of the world, and it takes very little to make that happen. For instance, if she is playing in my desk and gets a hold of something that I have to promptly take away for safety reasons, she cries like I just spanked her.

When she doesn't get her way, such as having candy for dinner, she cries.

When the dog licks her, she cries. Yes, for real.

When I don't let her take the hose and run around the back yard with it, she cries.

She also cries and claims that everything hurts so that when she really does get hurt, her dad and I have a tendency to blow her off. It makes me feel bad when I discover that she really IS hurt.

Some nights, it feels like everything makes her cry. It drives her daddy and me insane!

As if that wasn't enough, she is in that stage where she blatantly disobeys to see how much she can get away with. Even worse, she already lies. My sweet little baby tells bald face lies.

I just want to know what happened to my sweet little baby who was full of smiles and sunshine. The one who wanted nothing more than to make mom and dad happy.

But on the other side of this is a child who can make me laugh like no one else can. She says the most hilarious things that catch me off guard and undo my irritation with her in a split second. Her giggles are the best medicine in the world. I have never heard anything in my life that warms my heart the way Baby Bean does when she full out laughs. It is amazing.

Want to have a horrible day at work undone? Baby Bean can do that by grabbing your face and saying, "Mama, you're my best friend," or randomly saying, "I love you mama." She can relax the most frayed nerves by snuggling up with you to watch one of her many Di.sney movies. There is nothing like those big blue eyes and sweet little face. One of my favorite things (and her dad's least favorite) is eating fruit snacks together. I love it when she grabs two packs of fruit snacks and hands one to me, all on her own.

Admittedly, 2 is not my favorite age. I am definitely looking forward to her growing out of this phase. I heard that girls make you pay for it at this age, or pay for it when they are teenagers. I pray that that is right. I would rather take my beating now and have an easy teenager any day.

The bottom line is I love my child. More than the air I breathe. More than anything in this world. She is my everything. She is the reason I exist. She is brighter than the sunshine to me, and brings me more cheer than any rainbow. She's my baby, and I thank God every single day of her life that she is in mine.