2 1/2 going on 10

I am loving the 2's. Inara is such a riot these days. Yes, we have those typical rough 2 year old moments, but for the most part, they aren't as often as I had expected. I wonder how it is that kids know how to throw temper tantrums when I know for certain I never act out in such a way. Although, I would love to be able to pout my bottom lip, fold my arms across my chest, and stomp my feet when I don't get my way. Something tells me society would make fun of me if I did this though.

Inara's latest addition to her pouting routine is when she doesn't get her way or when she's being scolded, she says things like "I want da-da" or "I wanna go Avery's/Whitney's/Gammy's/Pop's house" as if these people won't tell her no or discipline her like mommy does. Or she will pout even more and go sit in another room. When I ask her what's wrong, she says, "I sad. Mommy yell at me." Boy, does she now how to work it good.

Her other favorite saying when I'm telling her to stop doing something is "But I love to do [fill in the blank]". Inara don't stand on the chair. But I love to stand on the chair. Inara stop kicking the back of my seat. But I love to kick the back of your seat. Inara that makes Mommy sad. But I love to make Mommy sad. Yes, that last one has been a conversation we've had. It was so hard to hear the first time. I ended up walking away from her because I was so frustrated, hurt, angry, etc. etc. She knew she was wrong and had hurt my feeling. After a few minutes, she found me and asked, "Mommy, will you talk to me now?" Even the silent treatment doesn't last long around here.

Many times after she's done something wrong, she will ask if I'm happy now. For example, we could be arguing about a meal. When she's finally given in and eaten, she will say, "Mommy, I ate my lunch. Are you happy now?" Oy vey. A good thing though is that Inara knows when she has hurt my feelings or done something wrong and always comes up to apologize for what she's done. It's good that she can empathize with other's feelings and knows when she's been wrong. Heck, I even know adults who can't do this still, so the fact that a 2 year old is in tune with other's feelings is very good.

As I'm sure all mommies and kids do, Inara and I have a lil game we play just the two of us. I will whisper in her ear and say, "I have a secret. I love you, sweet pea." She then gives me a hug and says, "I have a secret too. I love you, Mommy." Another lil thing she started doing is giving little hugs and little kisses. She will come up and say, "I give you little hug" and reaches in and very gently gives me the softest little hug ever. She then says, "I give you little kiss" and pouts out her bottom lip and leans in to ever so gently give me a kiss. I love when she does this. It's so adorable! In March I had gone back to CA for a girls' weekend. When I returned home, the whole next week, Inara would come up and give me a hug and say, "Mommy, I miss you at the airport." Nothing like a few days away to make you adore a child even more, if that's possible.

Every day there's something new she learns to do. Somedays I just can't seem to keep up with her. She's now big enough to get her own water out of the fridge. She goes in the cupboard, gets her own cup, and pushes it on the water spout. It floored me the first day she did it. I could just imagine water cups sitting all around the house. Thank goodness she hasn't done that yet. I've also started teaching her how to set the dinner table. She puts the napkins and silverware out, picks out her cup and plate for dinner, and sometimes I'll let her carry the salt & pepper to the table. It think it's important to start teaching kids responsibilities as early as possible. Plus, Inara loves being my big helper. She also loves helping with baking. She's getting quite good at cracking eggs, pouring ingredients into bowls, and stirring things up. It makes her feel so special when she gets to help out in the kitchen.

Back in February, we started potty training. She's been doing so well with using the big girl potty, even when out in public. This last weekend, though, we hit a few rough patches and she started peeing in her pull-ups. When I asked her why she did it, she said, "Cuz I love to pee in my pull-up." Guess how Mommy responded? I put her in big girl panties. Time for me to bite the bullet and I know she won't like having wet panties. She's done great the past 36 hours. She even used the public restroom at the park today. Let's hope she keeps it up. I seriously don't want pee stained rugs around the house.

It's easiest to show how cool Inara is by sharing some of the hilarious things she says. Today, as we were getting ready for naptime, I picked up a stack of books and tossed them to the corner of her room. She turns to me and says, "Mommy, don't throw my books. Use your manners." Doh! Boy, did she school me. I always tell her to take care of her toys and to use her manners. Shame on me for not following my own advice. I, of course, had to apologize to my little girl for not being disrespectful of her toys.

Today, we were talking about her love for books. I told her books are good for us because we can learn lots of new things from books and books make us smart. She joyfully said, "Yeah, mommy, books make us fart." You gotta love when kids struggle saying their s's, which end up sounding like f's.

Every night, Inara loves to lay on her bedroom floor and read books. The past few months she's been requesting that both mommy and daddy lay with her. After we read books, she yells "Family Hug!" and puts one arm around each of us. It's so cute. I love when she demands a family hug because it makes me smile to oblige.

One thing I really miss once I became a mom is privacy in the bathroom. Inara constantly has to follow me to the bathroom. The other day I told her I was going to go poopy, so for her to play in the playroom. Yeah right. Seconds later, she comes walking into the bathroom and says, "Mommy, I tell you a story while you go poopy." I guess she didn't want me to be bored and lonely. She's so sweet that way.

Inara loves to sing. She can frequently be heard belting out her ABC's. It cracks me up when she gets to the LMNOP part. She ends up saying L, M, N, N, N, O, P. It is kinda a tongue twister for little kids. She also loves singing Baa, Baa, Black Sheep or should I say yelling it. She get so into singing now that it ends up being more like yelling than singing. She's even been known to sing so loudly that she ends up stopping, coughing, and requesting water before continuing on. Maybe we have a future rock star on our hands. Hee hee. In school, they say a prayer before lunch and Inara loves to say it now throughout the day, not just at meal time: ABCDEFG Thank you God for feeding me.

Lately, she has become infatuated with marriage. We have a special wedding picture on the buffet in the dining room. She always tells me she loves mommy's pretty dress in the picture. She also likes to look at my wedding rings and says that's the ring daddy gave mommy when they got married. Her newest saying is she wants to get married. When I ask her, who she wants to marry, she says, "Daddy cuz I love my da-da." It's so cute that she loves her daddy so much and associates marriage with love as she should. She has also started calling herself a princess and Daddy a prince. Although, the other day she killed me when we were talking about the movie Shrek, and she said that I'm Princess Fiona. I asked who Daddy was from Shrek and she said, "Donkey." Gotta love that one!

She is so much like Shawn at times though it's scary. She now does this one laugh that kills me because it's seriously Shawn's laugh. I will ask her throughout the day how does Daddy laugh and she'll do it: hee hee hee. I love that she now imitates us. She also has a love of cereal just like her Daddy. Shawn's introduced her to Chocolate Chex, one of her absolute faves. As she was eating them one day, she says, "These are amazing!" Shawn and I were cracking up. She also loves the milk in her cereal bowl, especially after having a chocolate-y cereal. She tries slurping it with her straw but ends up making a mess, so some days I'll give her a straw to drink her cereal milk. The girl loves her cereal just like her Daddy. My favorite saying related to Daddy though is when I ask her why Daddy has to go to work and she says, "To make money for my piggy bank." Boy, does she have Daddy wrapped or what?

One night Inara and Shawn were pushing the strollers around the house, a nightly ritual. Suddenly, Shawn lets a fart rip. He says, "Oops, Daddy stepped on a frog." Inara says with a puzzled look, "Where's a frog?" Great Shawn. Can't wait til she uses that one in school one day.

Shawn was working from home one day, so I took Inara cruising around town to give him some quiet to work. We went to Ace Hardware, one of Inara's favorite places because they have kid size shopping carts that she loves to push around. I wanted to look at some paint colors. She asked what I was doing, so I explained to her. I then added I sure wish Pop was coming soon so he could help Mommy paint. Inara then starts looking at paint colors and saying, "Oh I like this one, Mommy. Oh no I like this one. I want to paint my room." "What color would you like to paint your room?" "Ummm Red. I want Pop to paint my room red." She's so funny. We then walked around Ace Hardware a bit more as she was carrying her favorite paint sample colors and saying, "Pop needs to paint my room, Mommy." Yes, my dear, I heard you the first 20 times. You've now got to be careful what you say around her because she repeats everything and seriously never forgets a thing.

She's becoming more and more into playing with her baby dolls. One funny thing she does when playing with them is telling me her baby is sick, so we have to take her to see Dr. Katz (her pediatrician). We start this whole dialogue: "Oh no. Baby is sick. What's wrong?" "She has a cough." "Oh no, a cough." "No, she has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 coughs!" "Oh no, 5 coughs. I'll hold her and make her feel better." "We have to take her to the doctor right now. Let's go see Dr. Katz." "OK. Let's take her to the doctor's office." "I have a cough too. I need to see Dr. Katz too." "Oh my poor Inara Grace." Then I give her a big hug.

Inara's really starting to show her creativity more and more. I absolutely love this age because imaginative playing is so fun. I was in the kitchen yesterday and she was in the family room. She was playing with a calculator, which she calls her cell phone. She tells me, "Mommy, I have to make some phone calls." "OK. Sweetie go right ahead." She proceeds to walk in the playroom talking on her phone. This is what I heard: "Hi. What you doing? My name Inara. What's your name? Oh that's a nice name. What's your mommy's name? Oh wow. We both have mommies name Marisa. OK. Bye." I was cracking up listening to her. Boy does she have a great imagination. I love it!