"I DO IT!"

Ah, two.

When your kid turns two everyone says "its such a fun age!" I think people just say this to trick you so they can laugh as they watch you stumble through it. It *IS* a fun age, but also extremely challenging. And I've been warned three is no better.

Meredith's newest thing is doing everything herself. "I DO IT!" she yells at me when I try to help her. I ask "can mama help you?" which of course brings the response "NO! I DO IT!" Its good... she's learning to do things on her own and exerting her independance. But its frustrating because so many of the things she wants to do she can't really do... like climb into Daddy's car (too high for her). Its frustrating for her, which in turn is frustrating for me. I've just learned to try to never be in a rush for anything since that intensifies the frustration for both of us.

One of the many new things she's trying to do by herself is dress and undress herself. Actually, the dressing part she still mostly lets me do for her. Its the undressing she's starting to master. This morning when I went to get her out of bed she had her jammies almost all the way off, and she giggled "naked baby!" when I opened the door. Silly girl.