Coming into Her Toddler-hood

In the past week or so, I've begun to notice some changes in LilyBaby. She's starting to assert her will a bit more. Okay, so she's becoming a wee bit more stubborn. She does things she knows she's not supposed to (like climbing up the side of the stairs) and hiding behind the screen in the living room and gets very frustrated when we have no choice but to gently but firmly discipline her. At the moment, the discipline is going well. We are able to stop the behavior, communicate our disapproval and the reason for the disapproval. She responds with frustration and sadness at having being stopped. Disciplining her, while difficult, seems to come naturally to us. We know we're doing it for the right reasons and I'm proud of myself in that I have not lost my temper when I've had to discipline.

Today, she threw a tantrum when her daddy had to put her favorite chair in the closet. Of course, we had told her several times to stop climbing on the chair but she just wanted to see what she could get away with. During the fit, John and I just ignored her and continued watching television. Of course, we had a corner eye on her to make sure she didn't hurt herself. After letting her carry on for a couple of minutes, I started playing with one of her favorite toys. That took her mind off the tantrum and she calmed down and came over to play. I'm proud of myself. She threw another little fit at the dinner table. You see we have a toddler who refuses to eat at night!!! What this means is that she wakes up in the middle of the night for a bottle because she's hungry. We've been obliging her because forcing her to eat at night is not an option. I suspect a little reflux that keeps her up at night. We'll see.

As for the potty-familiarizing, it's going well. She pee-pees on her potty when we remember to take her or when she feels like alerting us but we haven't had success with poo. I guess that will come eventually. We aren't going to force.

All in all, we can't complain too much. I notice her cranky patterns tend to fall around hungry times and need a nap times. I do think, though, that we're beginning to get into the challenging twos a little early but, hopefully, with continued patience and love, we'll get through this like we've gotten through everything else.