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Amelia knows what "no" means. She tells her stuffed animals "no" all the time. She tells them to listen. And she puts them in timeout. But somehow, when "no" comes out of my mouth, it seems not to translate in her world. She just looks at me. And grins. And keeps doing whatever she is doing. Timeout for Amelia means kicking, crying, and definitely NOT staying still in one place. Amelia's animals seem to grasp the timeout concept.

She's been quite a bully this week. I understand that she is two. I understand that she has no desire to be quiet and relax just because Mommy is completely and utterly burned out. But wow, sometimes I just want to pull my hair out. Or run away and hide in a cave. All alone. For about a week.

Or...

I can try really, really hard to focus on the highlights of my day. I can push aside the um, disagreements I had with my spunky little one and instead remember what she (and I) did RIGHT this week.

Why is it so hard to remember the good moments? I suppose exhaustion and exasperation take a toll after a while. But it is never all bad.

Amelia told me she wanted to give me a "big hug" - and she did.

I gave her a different breakfast than usual one morning, and she said "Mmmm, mmmm. Looks good!". (That one cracked me up.)

She put on her shoes all by herself two days in a row.

She cleaned up all her plastic fruits & veggies and her picture flash cards in the same evening.

I created an art project (glue stick and fake feathers!) and we completed it together.

We shared a pretzel an looked at bunnies in the mall.


And now she just took her diaper off... and she's throwing a tantrum because she doesn't want Daddy to put it back on her. Sigh... breathe.... and go back for more migraine medicine.

Has a mommy ever gone insane from terrible twos? I fear I may be the first.