Toddlers Are So Fun*strating!

Charlie has become so much fun lately! I just love her. And she has also become so frustrating! I just can't stand her! Here are some of the fun things she has done lately:

-The other morning she woke up and the first thing she said is "Mom, NEED watch Doya!" (As in Dora the Explorer, her new favorite show.) So I was trying to stall and asked her what her very favorite thing about Dora is. She said, "Doya NOT favorite. Ca-eee love ALLLLL princesses. And mean monsters. And mean dragons." She then proceeded to pester me until I would turn Dora on for her.

-We went to Cornbelly's Corn Maze the other Friday, and they have a bunch of playground areas and bounce houses and things that toddlers love. But it was starting to get dark so Seth was trying to talk Charlie into going over to the corn maze. She was NOT interested. He couldn't get her to put her shoes on and she could have easily gone into tantrum mode. But then he had the brilliant idea to tell Charlie that a corn maze is just like a scary forest! Woa! We couldn't get to that maze fast enough. And she just ran, and ran, and ran. Which is great because I never let her just run and run.

-Every now and then we stay out too late with Charlie and she had a complete fit in the car on the way home. One way we have found to calm her down is to sing songs. Wheels On Bus was the song of choice a few weeks ago. Seth went through the usual things on the bus like wipers and babies and started in on the not-so-usual things like dogs. Charlie started laughing and said, "No dogs on bus daddy! Hehe! Silly, silly daddy. No dogs on bus!" So then he continued on with cats, lions, bugs, etc. with Charlie laughing and calling him silly, silly daddy all the way home. So the last few days Charlie has been wanting to talk about the silly things that go on the bus. She'll ask, "Wheels On Bus, daddy! But just talk 'bout it. Just talk." The singing is out! And Seth has to keep talking, and talking, and talking about things on the bus for what feels like hours. You should hear some of the things that get on the bus! My favorite is when Charlie said God got on the bus. Seth wasn't sure what to say God did on the bus. I believe he just stayed for a little while and told the other passengers that they need to be nice to each other. Not too blasphemous, right?

-Charlie has to do everything by herself. If you pick her up to help her down the stairs she will walk back up those stairs so she can walk down them herself. If you take her shirt off for her she will put it back on so she can take it off herself. So I have to get her permission to do anything to her or I run the risk things taking an eternity to get done.