Miss Grinch

Kinley is rapidly becoming queen of the brats. She is basically just one big meltdown after another. Her favorite words are "NO" and "MINE" and she never does anything the easy way. She takes her shoes and socks off everytime she it strapped into her carseat (which is actually somewhat OK with me because she then forgets to tear the bows out of her hair...always a silver lining, right?), she won't sit in the shopping cart (without a fight) because she prefers to stand, she screams if the dog eats the food she throws on the floor, and tries to hit me when I wipe her nose.

This weekend in Cracker Barrell she wouldn't eat her pancake if she had to sit in a high chair, but she would gladly eat it if she got to sit in a big chair and use a big fork. Oh, and just one more thing. No bibs either. Brian had to take her out to the bathroom and spank her twice in the course of an hour long brunch.

Last night she threw a screaming fit and had to be removed from the table because we wouldn't give her.........more lima beans. Yeah, lima beans!! Of course, Ryker and Cainan gladly offered theirs, but we declined on her behalf. She wouldn't touch the baked turkey or the potato because she had already made up her stubborn little mind to eat 3 cups of lima beans in one sitting.

She spends 85% of her day shrieking at Cainan, slamming doors, and sitting in her bed (the punishment for these behaviors). The other 15% of the time she is rocking her baby dolls and giving them their bottles or driving her shopping cart around while she sings a happy tune. But let her spy Cainan looking in the general direction of the stuffed bunny she discarded half an hour ago and she becomes a shrieking shrew.

Brian tries to remind me that the boys were horrible at this stage (20 months) too, but I really don't remember. Maybe I've blocked it from my memory to protect my fragile psyche? He also frequently reminds me that I was the one that wanted to have a girl in the first place. Yeah, he's a lot of help as you can see.

We are just waiting for this stage to pass and another to take it's place. Hopefully one that involves immediate obedience and lots brotherly love. Sometimes we just have to laugh at her terribleness because there is nothing else we can do in the meantime.

This weekend we were driving home late at night and all 3 kids were asleep in the back of the car. Brian and I were having a nice conversation when suddenly we heard Kinley's little voice saying, "No, no, no, no." She hadn't been asleep at all. She wasn't screaming "no", like usual, she was just saying it, with various voice inflections and tones. "No, no, no, no, no." Now in a sing-song manner, "No, no, no, no, no, no." Now in a whiny voice, "No, no, no, no, no."

Brian just looked at me and said, "She must be practicing for tomorrow."