Two-Year-Olds: The Best Birth Control

Yesterday morning Genevieve and I took Noodles, our cat, to the vet for a check-up. We had to use a particular vet for this visit due to the adoption agreement and this vet is over a half-hour drive from us.
The trip to the vet wasn't so bad. Except that Noodles managed to break out of her carrier and wanted to sit in my lap, on the steering wheel, or on the dashboard in front of me for the rest of the ride. That, and Genevieve being in a cranky mood and whining off and on.
The check-up was relatively uneventful, except for Genevieve insisted on being held the entire time (have I mentioned that she weighs over 30 pounds now???) and wanted to be shown the same things over and over again. I put her down so I could pay for the visit and the tantrum began. The tantrum continued off and on for the next EIGHT HOURS. She screamed for me to pick her up and I would calmly tell her that she was too heavy to hold all of the time. She would screech and wail for me to pick her up again. Ah, I just love the looks I get from people when she's like this in public. We were finally able to leave and I put Genevieve back in the car seat for what I knew would be a delightful ride home. At least she stopped screaming about me picking her up. She was now screaming about being let out of the car seat.
I managed to stuff the hole in the cat carrier with a towel. This kept Noodles from getting out for almost a full 10 minutes. The good news is that Genevieve had now stopped screaming about being let out of the car seat. The bad news is that she had stopped being coherent at all and was just squealing and screeching in the most annoyingly high-pitched wail that you can possible imagine. I will admit it. At this point and time I lost my cool and screamed at her to shut up. My nerves had had it. Fortunately I don't think she heard me over her own wailing, or at least it had no effect on it one way or the other. For the rest of the ride home I turned up the music to the just below permanent ear damage level and did my best to ignore Genevieve.
We got home at 11:30. Genevieve was supposed to have a play date at 12:00. I told Genevieve that if she didn't stop screaming I was going to cancel her play date. I cancelled her play date. I made Genevieve lunch. I told Genevieve that she could either eat it and go to bed or she could just go to bed. She just went to bed.
The rest of the day wasn't as bad but she did end up being sent to bed an hour early that night. Genevieve can be a wonderful, sweet, hilarious child, and probably is most of the time. She can also come this close to becoming the youngest child to be sent off to boarding school.

Hard to Say

Genevieve's class had a Hanukkah party today. The parents were allowed to come back in for doughnuts, latkes (potato pancakes) and juice. A few grandparents were able to sneak in to see their favorite little ones, too.
Several parents came up to me to talk about Genevieve. "My child just loves Genevieve and talks about her all of the time," they say, "but he/she can't really say her name, or course. It sounds more likes Jeeves/G-vieve/G.B." Genevieve has a hard time with her name, too. Most of the time it sounds like "G-vieve". Hopefully she will be a good speller.
I thought it was very nice that Genevieve has made such an impression on her classmates. I wonder if it is because she never shuts up.

Ebb and Flow

Yesterday was Genevieve's birthday. She is now two years old. A 30.5-pound, 35.5-inch tall two-year-old. In these two years I have learned two new laws, just as important as any Newton ever dreamed of: the Conservation of Time and Annoyances.

When your child is having a tantrum it seems to drag on for hours and hours, even when only a few minutes have passed. If she is cranky for more than a few minutes it can feel like she's been that way all day. When she is laughing, playing, or sleeping, however, time flies by. This is why on any given day you can be pretty sure that your child is just a menace, which means that time would seem to go on forever. Memory has a good way of letting you forget the bad and remember the good, though, so when looking back on past experiences with your child you remember what a beautiful little angel she is. And how time has flown. And thus we have Conservation of Time.

When you first bring your child home, no matter how sweet the kid, you will notice that babies can be pretty annoying. They just eat, sleep, poop and cry all day and never let you know what all of the fussing is about. Soon they will sleep through the night, which is great except the amount of crying tends to be conserved and now you just get a more concentrated dose of it. Eventually they can speak and tell you want they want. This is a wonderful milestone. Except when they ask for things they can't/shouldn't have and then scream and cry like you are beating them when you say no. Another personal favorite is "Me do it!" or "By self". I really wanted Genevieve to become more independent, but should I really have to explain to her that she can't cut the vegetables with Mommy's sharp knife or walk across a busy parking lot without holding Mommy's hand? So now we have Conservation of Annoyances.

Yeah, G was pretty annoying this morning. Now she's taking a nap. I guess this morning wasn't so bad after all, nor were the past two years. They have definitely flown by, my little angel.

Feedin' the goats G-Style

While visiting Georgia this thanksgiving we dropped by Carrie's cousin's farm. Genevieve tried very hard to feed the goats some goldfish crackers. In the end she couldn't let the food go to waste.



We also had a little birthday cake after the turkey and Genevieve sang her own rendition of a birthday classic.