Tackling the Terrible/Terrific Twos

Teresa:
Well, we made it through the two’s as Delaney turned three at the beginning of January and I have to say it wasn’t all that terrible! Unfortunately, I think we’re heading right in to the very drama filled threes. I hardly ever heard the word “no” out of her mouth and often used her willingness to complete tasks against my six year old son who often says no when I ask him to do things like pick up his room or take the trash out. Lately things haven’t been so easy with Laney and I think I may have discovered the reason. I learned from my daycare provider, who is also a great friend that Laney’s been showing up to daycare every morning with Hershey’s Kisses. It seems my husband has taken to bribing her to get her to cooperate in the mornings…thanks daddy!! Oh well, what can I say, she’s her mother’s daughter and inherited my chocolate addiction gene!

As for Laney’s favorite toy, it’s all about fairies, ponies, and princesses right now. She got a fairy dress up trunk for Christmas and dresses up almost every night to flit around the house. She’s even come up with this cute little wiggly dance that is now tagged “The Fairy Dance” that she does in or out of costume and on command. She and Brenden started doing their own little skits the other night after watching a couple youngsters doing skits on America’s Funniest Home Videos and it was so cute. Laney would put on different costumes and Brenden would sit on the couch narrating a story as Laney acted it out. It never fails to amaze me how fast both kids learn and grow.

It also looks like, with the change in age, Laney’s pretty close to outgrowing her afternoon nap, which I am going to miss dearly. She is good at quiet time though, so she’s taken to lying in bed with her favorite book or singing to herself. I can always tell she’s waking up in a good mood when I hear her singing, “I love you, you love me” (otherwise known as the Barney song) at the top of her lungs to let me know she’s up.  I’m very sad she’s grown up so quickly, but so looking forward to new things like ballet and pre-school.  Thank you to all of you who have followed Laney and I through our journey together through the terrific twos!

Terri:

We are the proud parents of fraternal twins (a boy and a girl) – 27 months. Their favorite toy is usually the one that the other one has at the moment. For our kids, at this age, they actually have new favorites fairly often. Lately, their absolute favorite is the foam squares that fit together to form a mat. The squares have cut out numbers and are all different colors. They love to jump from square to square and we take the opportunity to practice on their recognition of colors and counting. This is a great indoor activity to run and jump when it is too cold to go outside (they are really missing being outside all the time). They also love their magnadoodle board. One draws while the other one erases the masterpiece as fast as they can. They have just recently shown much more interest in actually sitting and playing with toys like Lego blocks and coloring (well scribbling) – showing that their patience level is increasing and of course they love it they can “talk” mom or dad into playing too.

Now that the holidays are over and the decorations are put away, our bloggers weigh in our their child’s favorite toy.

Jennifer:
Gianna’s favorite toy is her play kitchen. She received it for Christmas last year and it is the one toy that gets the most use. She loves helping cook in our kitchen, so she often pretends to make things on her own. It allows her to use her imagination and she acts out what she learns when helping mom and dad in the kitchen. She makes all kinds of concoctions for us with her plastic food and dishes.

Amy:
Any type of a ball. Bouncing balls, footballs, soccer balls- you name it he is attracted to it and cannot seem to differentiate between inside toys and out so we have had a few mishaps. He definitely has a great arm and leg so we can only hope one of these days it pays off. We got him the Gator Golf set for Christmas and he loves that as well but around his brother the clubs turn into weapons ~ amazing how naturally that happens with boys.