Tatum went for her 2 year check up at the same time that Declan went in for his 2 month visit. I didn't have high hopes for the appointment since Tatum was a basket case at her 18 month check up. She did have a major meltdown when they first called us back and she was supposed to get on the scale. The nurse had to weigh me, then the two of us together, in order to get Tatum's weight. But after that she did a pretty good job. She didn't cry, even when they pricked her finger. She was stubborn about having to say "ahhhh". She opened her mouth but wouldn't stick her tongue out so he had to gag her with the stick. All in all I was definitely pleasantly surprised with out it went.
Her stats:
36 inches tall (~90th percentile)
27.6 pounds (~50th percentile)
Now the rest of this post is going to be rather long and full of cute or funny or naughty little things Tatum has done recently, just so I can remember them.
-She has a few phrases or words that she will use all the time. They change regularly but right now they are "every day" and "soon". Soon I can kind of understand, I'm guessing I use that word with her a lot. But every day? I have no idea how she decided that was a phrase that should be used frequently. For instance, we will sit down to dinner and she likes to reassure herself that what we are eating isn't hot, only warm. But now she will say "it isn't hot every day". Or if we are taking her to use the potty and she doesn't want to (we are potty training, more on that in a separate post) she will say "I can't go potty every day". I wish I had it on camera because the way she says every day makes it pretty funny.
-Declan had a habit of crying until he sort of blacked out and in order to avoid it getting that bad we would blow on his face to force him to take a breath. Now anytime he cries Tatum is right there, blowing in his face. Kind of funny, kind of super annoying.
-I'm sure it was inevitable, but sadly she has learned the word "mine". But she always says "mines" (probably from us saying yourS). Again, kind of annoying that she has to point out that everything is hers, but always makes me smile that she adds that s at the end.
-She will spread her legs as far apart as she can, like she is going to do the splits, and say "ah ah ah" (what she calls the letter A). I have no idea where she learned it, I can't imagine she figured it out on her own, but it really does look like an A.
-The other day she was standing on the bench for our table and I was sitting by her. All of a sudden she grabbed my shoulder, sort of bent over to look me in the face and said "mommy be happy please". I about died. Of course, I thought it was something she pulled out of thin air but apparently it is something Brennan says to her when she is upset about going to the bathroom. Not quite as impressive but still funny and cute.
-She LOVES to sing. She sings some real songs but lots of the time she is just singing randomness.
-When Tatum counts it's like this, "one, two, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fourteen". Not sure where three, four, twelve and thirteen have gone but we'll get there eventually.
-We were at Kohls the other day and Tatum was wearing her winter boots. They just velcro on the sides and they are a little too big so they are the easiest shoes for her to get on and off herself. We were in the shoe section and Tatum would go off on her own and say "oh cute" and pull some shoes off the shelf, sit down and take her boots off, try on the shoes, walk around, take them off, put them away and put her boots back on then go on to choose a different pair. She always chose the most hideous shoes but it was so fun to watch her complete the whole sequence. I really didn't think I had tried many shoes on around her, but man she's got it down.
-A couple of weeks ago Tatum started this thing where she switches people's names around. So she'll tell grandma that she is Tatum and that Papa is grandma and so on. Once again I have no idea where she learned to do this. And sometimes she pretends to be a dog and if you ask her what her name is when she is a dog she will always say grandma (I'm not sure why she doesn't say Duke). And if she is playing with her baby dolls and you ask what their name is she will also always say grandma. And if you ever tell her she is crazy, or silly, or stinky, or goofy, etc she will yell "no! I'm Tina!" Yes she still says her name is Tina. I've been working on it with her, and she can copy me correctly but independently she will always say Tina. I have recently started saying Tatum and Declan in the place of character names when I read books to her. She LOVES it. Yeah, lots of name things lately.
-When Declan starts crying in the other room she will yell "just a minute Declan!".
-She likes to pull mine and Brennan's heads down and plant a kiss on our forehead. Too sweet.
Sometimes I feel like our days are spent at odds with each other. There are days I feel like she is driving me to the edge of insanity. Last fall she got into a hard core pushing phase and I struggled with how to teach her and how to handle it. She seems to be mostly past it, but is now old enough to be extremely territorial with her toys, and we are back to trying to learn how to share. Then two weeks ago I started potty training which is still an ongoing battle. The problem is sometimes I let these little things (Yes, they feel HUGE but they are little.) keep me from enjoying my sweet daughter. We have our moments, but she really is a good, sweet kid and I love her death. Yet somehow it always feels like she is the only kid acting out and I compare way too much. But how many millions of kids go through a pushing phase? Or struggle with learning to share? Did I do something wrong? Well, yes, I'm sure I have made mistakes and there are behaviors of hers that I could have prevented to a certain extent. But am I doing my best? Yes, and I think when all is said and done she will turn out all right. She is obviously too little to understand the struggles of a parent but sometimes I wish I could express my feelings to her and she would understand. When I have been hard on her and she comes over and wraps her arms around my neck and says "squeeze tight" , I just wish I could explain to her how much I love her and that I just don't want to fail her as a parent and that's why I do the things I do. I guess maybe one day she will read it here and understand. :)
I feel like I am probably rambling and not making much sense. This, as well as a couple other topics (more posts to come!), have been on my mind for awhile and I've been wanting to write down my thoughts, more for myself than anyone else. My thoughts in summary:
My daughter can be a handful and sometimes frustrates me and that's okay.
Even though she is handful I love her so so much and I'm not sure I would choose to have her personality be any different. And that's okay too.
And here are a couple of pictures and videos. I dare you not to love her spunkiness. It's impossible. :)
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