This week we took a shot at potty training. I wasn't even actively engaged in it that much, and it was still one of the worst things ever. Amelia did not respond to it well. After the first day she got extremely annoyed with the whole deal and basically shut us out. She wouldn't respond to anything we asked her, or even make eye contact. You could tell she hated it, and it made me hate it too.
It turned into a battle of wills and eventually the kiddo won out. I think she understood what we were trying to do, but I guess she just wasn't ready. We will take a break for a little while and I'm sure she will be more receptive to it.
She has become quite the emotional ninja the last few weeks. She has started throwing fits more frequently to try and get what she wants. She gets frustrated easily and starts flailing around or even grabbing things and chucking them. She knows these things get a response from us and has started using them to her advantage. I no expert in psychology1, but I can tell when I am being manipulated. I'm just amazed at how good she is at it.
Last night she got out of the bath and had to do her normal running around the house in her birthday suit. We joked with her that she better get dressed or Divot (the dog) was going to bite her butt. A little bit later she comes around the corner screaming and grabbing her butt claiming that Divot bit her. “Divy bite me”, she says. But the dog was on the other side of the room. I couldn't believe it. I don't know what her goal was, but she did a pretty good job at acting like she had been injured. I'd written a post a few months ago saying that we might be in the “terrible 2's.” I was wrong. I think we are almost there now.
Even though she has her moments Amelia is a sweet-heart 99% of the time. When she asks us for things she says “please” and “thank-you”. She has started saying “bless you” and “excuse me” and uncannily knows when to apply each one. When I leave for work I'll tell her I love her and she will say “I love you too, daddy.”, which is amazing. A couple times she has been snuggling and says “I wuv you” totally unprompted. Those are the times when you feel like you have discovered the meaning of life or something. This is what I am here for. This is my reason for being alive.
This morning Amelia asked for an apple. She didn't want us to cut it up. She wanted to go after the whole thing. She did pretty well, but gave up after about 20 minutes and asked me to cut it up for her.
- I minored in psychology and took a child psychology course… but somehow it didn't prepare me for fatherhood. They might need to look at their curriculum. ↩
