Tantrums have lessoned a bit, but moodiness, attitude, and screaming seem to have increased. It's hard to try to distract her with other things to improve her mood. Seems like she gets stuck in a bad mood and is that way for a while. I usually try to be calm and understanding because I think it's just the "terrible twos", and that "this too shall pass". But sometimes she seems to respond better to a commanding authoritative voice, or when she hears frustration (or being fed up) in my voice. Is that why many mothers end up just yelling at their kids all the time? They don't seem to listen when you're being nice. They push you until there's no more Mr. Nice Guy. I always envisioned being a kind and gentle mother. But I think I get trampled on that way. I'm sure part of it depends on the temperment of the child. I guess I have to find a healthy balance between being kind and firm.

On a positive note, she is doing really well playing independently, which was something that I wished for just a few months ago. She gives me lots of time to take care of the new baby, and to do some cooking, cleaning, and paperwork. I feel bad sometimes and miss spending lots of time with her. I don't want to miss her childhood, or the times when she wants to hang out with me because I know it decreases over the years. But I really appreciate having the time to take care of my baby boy and get other things done.

She's becoming a little diva, too, and I don't mean just attitude. She turns on some music, stands up on her stool, like a little soap box, and starts singing to the ballad with emotion in her face, hand gestures, and everything. I just picture her like one of those child prodegies on America's Got Talent.

She incorporates pretending into all her playing now. She loves to play with dress up sticker dolls. During which I can hear her saying things like, "Mommy, I want to..." And then she says "OK".

The other day, she started pretending to have a doll or something in her hand and pass it to me. She had a few different pretend "dolls". She named them different Disney princess and prince names, as well as mommy and daddy.

She also loves role playing. She likes to pretend mommy and daddy are different characters, like a Disney prince, and she is the princesss.

Has it really been over a month since my last post? So much going on. Preparing for her birthday, for the arrival of Baby J, Halloween, and all her friend's birthday parties! Her 2nd birthday party was a memorable day for her. She blew out her candles, and now wants to blow out candles every time she has cake. She played with her friends. She enjoyed opening her presents and playing with all her new toys.

She is now a bonafide princess. She knows all the Disney princess names, wears princess costumes all the time, and loves everything princess.

She loves stickers again. I thought she grew out of that, but got back into it, especially Disney princess and Tinkerbell stickers.

She has learned how to ask for specific (mostly Princess) things as gifts. Since Christmas is around the corner, we've been telling her to ask Santa.

The terrible twos are still raging, and I'm growing less patient as my belly grows more outward. I've had to seek some parenting support just to make sure I'm not going crazy.

But she's singing a lot more, talking a lot more, improved her fine motor skills (better coloring, arts and crafts, helping me mix stuff when I'm preparing meals), and playing make-believe a lot. I want to get her out to where she can run and climb more. She still has a lot of energy, and it's been too cold and wet to go to outdoor parks. So I'll probably start taking her to the indoor play gym at the mall or something like that.

Halloween was one event after another. Trick-or-Treating at a couple of different malls/shopping centers, a Halloween play date, the pumpkin express train, not to mention giving candy out at home. But that was a memorable time for Bel, too. She loved seeing all the other princess costumes and getting all the candy.

I still look at her, mostly when she's sleeping, and am amazed at how she still resembles that newborn that we brought home from the hospital 2 years ago. 

Another thing that has come along with Bel approaching 2 years old is her change in routine. This always gets me. Just as soon as I feel like I'm settling into a good routine, and motherhood isn't that tough, she changes. Bedtime used to be fairly easy, just saying "Do you want to go to the bed and read books?". The answer was always an enthusiastic "Yes!" and then following me into the bedroom. Now it's "No, I want to play toys."

She's too big for me, and I'm too pregnant, to pick her up and take her to the bed, so I have to think of a new way to lure her into bed. I'm thinking of saying, "OK, Mommy is going to go to the bed and read books. Bye-bye.". She usually wants to stay near me, so maybe that will work.

The teeth brushing routine has gotten a lot worse as well. She has never liked it and has always put up a fight, but it's gotten worse. I've had a give her a few time-outs in order to get her to allow me to brush her teeth. I used to pin her down and do it, but she's getting stronger, and I don't want to risk her kicking me in the belly. But I'm getting tired of the constant time-outs, which seem to be increasing with time, rather than decreasing. So I think they are becoming less effective for me. I think I'm going to try to tell her that mommy won't sleep with her if she doesn't let me brush her teeth because I want to sleep with a clean teeth girl.

On the flip side, she has gotten a lot better about cleaning up after she is done playing with something. It is not 100%, but she does do it when I ask and sometimes she even does it on her own, without even being asked. It used to be a power struggle to do that. I used to have to tell he that if she didn't put away her things, they would go bye-bye, in order for her to do it.