Our Feisty Two-Year Old

Maddie is two!

And she's a feisty little girl.  She has so much character and cracks us up that we'll take the naughty with the good. 

She gets into everything.  I mean EVERYTHING.  We have locks on doors we never had with Nate-every door is locked and we also got locks for the oven and fridge (both of which have been broken already).  She is always trying to climb up on the counters so she can get into the cabinets.  She can open child-proof bottles (I have no clue how she does it).  And we have two good stories just in the past couple weeks to paint a picture of our destructive little girl.

One afternoon the kids were playing upstairs while Michael and I were talking downstairs.  We went up to check on them to find Maddie in her room with the bottle of bath bubbles (the bathroom door should have been locked).  She had dumped out the entire contents and was rubbing it into the carpet.  It probably took at least 2 hours to clean that mess up.  At least her room smells bubble gum fresh!

The kids had a particular difficult time going down for their naps one Saturday recently.  Tired of listening to their crying, I shut our bedroom door (we were trying to have a lazy afternoon watching tv in bed).  Some time later, Maddie comes strolling in our room and climbs up in bed.  Instantly I smell her and see she is messy all over her hands and face.  I rush downstairs to find she got into the pantry (also usually locked) and there were chips and cheese balls all over the kitchen and living room floor. 

Moral of the stories: make sure all doors are locked, even if it's nap time and you think your kids are securely in their rooms.

She loves to be girly.  She loves wearing dresses and bows in her hair (when she actually keeps them in). Whenever we tell her she's so pretty she lifts up her toes because we call nail polish "pretties".  She also loves to take care of everybody.  We play house a lot and she makes sure everyone has something to eat and drink.  She's always concerned that everyone has what they need. 

She's not potty trained and hasn't gone on the potty since that first time. Not a concern for me.  Of course having one potty trained I can get anxious to have the other one done too, but it can wait until she's ready.  She sits on the potty and doesn't have a clue what to do.  It might take some time.

She talks like crazy and loves to learn.  She is learning colors and shapes.  She can count to two. But my favorite recent story about her learning is the Bible story lesson.  At church last week, the lesson was about being kind to others.  They had a picture of a bear and were taught to say sorry and give big bear hugs when they hurt someone or do something naughty.  We put the lesson up on the fridge and work on it that week.  So, every time we do something wrong, we hug the other person and say the memory verse, "love is kind".  By Tuesday she had it down.  She said "sorry" and came and gave me a bear hug and then without prompting said, "love kind". 

So even though she's rotten, she's so stinkin' adorable and sweet.