4 1/2 and 2 1/2

There is a difference between a 4 year old and a 4 1/2 year old. And there is definitely a difference between a 2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old.

4 1/2 year old:

As her little sister was trying to find her tail so she could be a bunny. The 4 1/2 year old very emphatically told her, "H2, you are not a rabbit." So I told her "Your sister can pretend she is a rabbit....you like to pretend you are things all the time. You like to pretend you are a princess." That's when she told me "Mommy, big girls do not pretend! Princesses are real! and I am a real princess, and Hannah is a real princess, and Kayden is a real Super Hero!" (Okay..glad big girls don't pretend.)

Several times this past week she has told me she is "not going to be H2s sister anymore!" (Good luck with that one.)

Yesterday as we were discussing what I wanted her to do. She said several times "Mommy I don't want to do it your way!..I want to do it my way!" I told her she could sure try that and see what happened, or she could move out on the street and live by herself without a mommy and daddy, and then she could do things her way. (She decided she didn't want to do that.)

She's also trying out new things on me. For example when I got out puzzles for her to work on yesterday, and I was busy minding my own business, doing housework, she would yell at me. "Mommy, don't talk to me right now...I'm busy." "Mommy, you need to leave me a lone for a little bit." (I understand that I have probably said something to her like this in the past, but it was under different circumstances.) It is weird to hear it when you are in the next room folding clothes.

2 1/2:

So far, the 2 year old has been sweet and funny and a blast. This 2 1/2 year old is a whole new ball game. She has stepped up her game just in time for a new baby to arrive and is trying to drop her nap too...I'm not going to let happen if possible. I need her to nap.

"I can do it by myself!"

This started on a walk last week. Every time she says this, she wrinkles up her brow and looks at us with very serious eyes and a pouty mouth. "I can do it by myself!" She wanted to push her John Deere Tractor down a very steep hill coming home from the park. Boy did she do it By herself!

Then she wanted to dye easter eggs "By Myself!" And she did. No one could help her. Every egg was brown, and all our dyes ended up brown, but she did it By herself!

Easter morning she held up her hand like a stop sign and shook it at us and informed all of us that she was going to find the eggs "By myself!"

Yesterday she wanted to put on her pullup "By Myself!" If only she would go to the potty By herself! She puts on all her shoes and shirts "By Myself!"

Independence is good, but yesterday during her "nap", the first time I went in, she had taken the blanket down off the window that I use to darken her room, had on a night gown, a backpack, and all her drawers open and clothes on the floor. So I undid all the damage laid her back down, with a book, her blankie and a drink. (She has always been such a good napper.) Then I hear her knocking on the door a little while later, and she had A & D ointment all over her body, all over the dresser, all over the wall, and all over the door. Not to mention diapers out and all sorts of other stuff. (Did I mention we are in the middle of trying to show our house.)

This morning she told her sister... "keep your hands to yourself!"

Her favorite things to say to me are "Not yet mommy, not yet!" (When I want her to do someting) and "Now mommy, right now! "(When she wants me to do something.) And if I don't do it fast enough she gets right in my face and says "Now mommy!"

Still cute and funny...
The other day when she wanted me to dance, and I told her I was too fat...(8 months pregnant). She said "You're not fat, you just have baby Leif in your tummy." I thought that was pretty insightful, and it made me feel good to know that a 2 year old could see that I'm not really fat.

On our walk to the park, we passed a rock retaining wall and she exclaimed "It's the great wall of China!"

She's still cute and funny, but also a whole lot of energy bent on destruction as well.