Temporary? Insanity

There’s something about that grin of hers that melts my heart, and blurs in my memory the screaming, the smirking, the smearing, the stink and the stickiness of my sweet Emma.

Indeed, there is something of the Jekyll/Hyde in her. One moment a charming, endearing child. The next, a red-eyed monster howling and oozing and other horrible things ending in “ing”.

It boggles my mind that in the space of one day she can bite my leg, and hours later hurl herself against it shouting a spontaneous “Love you Mummy!”. How quickly giggles turn into tears and vice versa!

I re-read certain sections of “What to Expect the Toddler Years” the other night, and it hit home to me just how normal Emma is for her age. She is neither below or above average when it comes to behaviour or development. She’s spot on. I was feeling rather ambivalent about this, until I realized that this reminder had increased my patience my ten fold. I haven’t been seeing her as an evil genius determined to make my life miserable, or a woeful ignoramous who doesn’t know any better.

Instead I’ve been seeing her as what she is; a toddler!

And she’s been developing some of the cutest mannerisms lately! Saturday afternoon she wandered into the living room where I was sorting out the various toy bins and she exclaimed “Oh dear! A mess!”. And today she was pacing around in the bathroom muttering to herself, “Hmmm…let’s see….Hmm…I know!” My favourite is when she was crying her eyes out for no apparent reason and sobbing, “I sad! I crying!” And when I asked why she responded in a withering tone of voice, “I sad!”

Well, it was a rather foolish question, now wasn’t it?

She confuses the heck out of me, but I adore her (most of the time). I often forget it, but I know that the qualities that madden and infuriate me the most, are the qualities that will make her the strong, confident, happy adult I hope she’ll grow up to be.