Friday, February 24, 2012

Caught

I finally caught it.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the elusive "scrunchie face."


That face is one of her silly faces, but heaven forbid that she make it for the camera.  And just wait until I capture what she does when I say, "Smile!"  There is a reason we portrait photographers avoid flat out asking kids to smile for the camera.  For the record, my kid refuses to smile for the camera anyway.

I also caught the following interaction between two young people, rather than break it up.

Bean:  "No!  You may NOT ride in my car!"
Sweet Pea: *ear piercing scream*  (You know, the one she's been perfecting this week.  In fact, last night, she screamed eight times in a row at a decible I would never in a million years have thought could have issued from a body that tiny.  Eight short screams that probably made the neighbors, or at least our roommate, think we had threatened to cut off our child's leg or something.  And then she went to sleep.)

Is that not the most precious pout you have ever seen?!


The first picture is also proof of the pouty lip.  Our little one perfected the pouty lip a couple of months ago and hasn't looked back.  She likes to use it the most in her time-outs.

Speaking of time-out, we started doing them in response to the mini-tantrums our little princess has been trying lately.  I didn't think she was old enough, but she started doing something funny whenever she got frustrated that made me think time-outs would help.  If something happens to frustrate her, say, Bean takes away a toy, she'll usually give one brief little angry yell, flap her arms in frustration, stick out her bottom lip, then lay herself down quietly on the floor for a few seconds.  Then she'll get up and go on like nothing happened.  It's actually pretty adorable and hilarious, like a self-imposed "re-boot" to gather her composure.  If only adults could be so self-controlled!

Now that we're in the full-swing of toddlerhood, we're seeing a bit more of Sweet Pea's personality and with that comes some independence.  That independence can start to get a little out of control though at time.  For example, Sweet Pea is a little enamored with her Daddy's cell phone.  She is allowed to play with the phone, but only with help and only for short periods of time.  When cell phone play time is over, it's over.  Period.  However, Sweet Pea almost never wants cell phone time to end.  She wants to play with it never-endingly.  I am not ok with that.  When I take that phone away, her little grip tightens, her face screws up, her back arches, and she lets out a yell that is not okay in our home.  So we "re-boot."  I take the phone, take her angry little self out of the situation, sit her on the floor and talk to her quietly about how important it is to have a kind voice until she quiets down.

You know what?  It works.  She totally gets it.  She quiets down, sticks out that pouty lip, then collects herself, says, "Sa-she" (sorry), gives me a hug and we move on to something else.  I know I'm in for way worse than this in the months and years to come, but it's been really encouraging these past couple of weeks to see how consistency and expectations can be effective, even when she's this little.  Sweet Pea is awfully good about listening and rarely gets upset when we say no, but sometimes she does.  I know it must be so frustrating to her when I say no about something and she doesn't understand the reason.  It's crazy to watch this little baby become her own person, complete with opinions!    

  
In this case, nobody needed a time-out because a well-timed plane overhead and they got so excited they completely forgot they were fighting.  Which, of course, made me laugh.

2 comments:

  1. hehe i love w's face in the airplane shot. "oooooo!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the pictures of them both pouting. One of my favorite pictures of Melissa & I from when we were young is us fighting over a swing and screaming at each other. I love that my parents took a picture before breaking it up.

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