Katie has her say

Little ones in the “Terrible Twos” ask innocent sweet questions as they learn about life and loudly protest when life fails to go their way – an our two-year-old granddaughter Katie is no exception.

Every day she learns something. She recently saw a picture of her mom Sharon in a wedding picture. “You’re married?!” the child exclaimed.

“Well, yes. Do you know who I married?” Sharon asked.

“I don’t know. SOMEbody!”

“Yeah. Who is my husband?”

“Mmm, Nathan?”

“No, that’s my brother. Who is my husband?”

At that point Jacob, Katie’s dad and Sharon’s husband chimed in, “I’m married, too. Who is my wife?”

Katie looked at them thoroughly confused, “I don’t know!” They told her and now she knows.

Every day she learns more if only because she wants to join every conversation and activity as she tries to catch up with older sisters and brother. She caught up with Eli for a moment when he showed her how to do a goofy chant with a swaying dance. Once she got the beat, Katie eased forward until she swung in front of Eli while chanting his silly song.

She joined the conversation the day her sister Daisy, 6, asked their mom, “Where is your mom?”

“El Dorado,” my daughter answered.

“But my mom is with God,” Katie stated confidently.

“I’m right here,” Sharon replied.

“No. She’s gone. You’ll see her later.” Katie insisted.

Katie may not know everything, but she does know coffee.

Recently Sharon wrote, “At 5 p.m. I had a cup of coffee (kind of my new normal, apparently.) Katie watched and asked, ‘What do you do after it’s coffee time?’”

“I wake up and get going!”

“And then it’s coffee time again?” Katie asked.

In that busy household the answer is ‘yes.’

And then there is the other side of Katie. The side reflecting a toddler in the midst of the terrible twos. Her mom provided the following list of recent reasons Katie cried, screamed or threw a 45 minute tantrum:
1. I won’t let her use my phone while I’m on a phone call for work.
2. She wants her panties and shorts on.
3. She also wants a diaper.
4. She wants her panties inside her diaper…not on the outside.
5. She wants her daddy.
6. She wants her mommy.
7. She wants to go to bed.
8. She wants a different blanket.
9. She also wants the other one she just threw out of the crib.
10. She wants me to go away.
11. She wants me to “sleep with her.”
12. She wants out of time out.
13. …but she wants to be IN her crib.
14. She wants to go to a DIFFERENT church (she thought it was time for friends to be there).
15. She wants to sit with her sister in the same chair, but she doesn’t want her sister to touch her.
16. She doesn’t want anyone in the car to look at her while she screams for 30 minutes.
17. She doesn’t want anyone to help her while she screams about not being able to do something.
“I won’t go on, but I could. I love this child so much. She is a gift. She is also a toddler who is willful and downright ugly sometimes.” Sharon concluded her posting with a prayer, “Lord, help me to love her with your love. Help me to cherish her, especially on the days that I have no clue how to help her calm down. Give me wisdom and grace.”

Amen to that for all mothers of two-year-olds and older.


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