My Sophisticated Toddler

A month shy of officially hitting the "terrible twos," Olivia is as demanding and stubborn as the next toddler.  She has a quiet way of sneaking around the house doing whatever she pleases, and most of time this is fine with me, as she doesn't cause a lot of trouble.  But let me assure you, she can throw a killer tantrum complete with big crocodile tears the minute things don't go her way.  Adorable and sweet 98% of the time, obnoxious and unruly the other 2%.  I think that's how it is with most almost 2-year olds, right?

This tiny little girl has decided that she does not need to sit in her booster seat at the table anymore.  At each meal time she climbs up to any available 'adult chair' with confidence and ease.  Then she proceeds to give me numerous mini-heart attacks throughout the meal while she stands, climbs, wiggles, and occasionally falls off of the chair.  All-the-while never letting go of her food.

Today Olivia decided that she's too mature for the cheap plastic Ikea dishes I've been serving the kids' food on for the past 3+ years.  Today she found her way up to the table to finish off a big bowl of Cheerios that I was too distracted to finish eating.  I swear, our bowls are not as huge as it looks in these pictures... her head is just that little.

And there she sat until every last Cheerio was scooped into her tiny little mouth.  When she was done, she held up the heavy ceramic bowl and said, "mo."  I knew that allowing her to continue eating out of a grown-up bowl was not going to end well for her or the bowl, so I exchanged the empty white bowl for a cheap Ikea plastic one filled with a new serving of Cheerios and milk. Olivia took one look at the bowl, yelled something that I'm sure could be translated to "I don't want to eat from this stupid bowl, you idiot!", and swatted it off the table to the floor.  So now we have a new battle at meal time... first the chair and now the dishes.  Awesome. 

On an unrelated note, but evident from these pictures one can see that Olivia can most often be found half-dressed these days.  Just like her crazy "I need be naked boy" brother.  What is it with these red headed children and their aversion to clothing?  Seriously.  She takes her pants off faster than I put them on, and runs around the house with her tiny little diaper covered tush hanging out for all to see.  I feel like I should put a sign on the door that says, "clothing optional," to forewarn any visitors that they may be witnesses to indecent exposure when they come over.  But I'm pretty sure our HOA wouldn't be too thrilled about that.

P.S. I snapped these pics quickly this AM without realizing that most of them were blurry... grrr.  Maybe it's high time I find time for that camera class I've been wanting to take???