A couple of weeks ago Truman and Amelia turned two. I would say that so far they are both living up to the Terrible Two moniker. As expected, they are each taking different approaches to their reign of terror.
One of Truman's many nicknames is "Truminator" and it's fitting his two year old personality quite well. If something can be broken, spilt, crushed, thrown, knocked over, eaten, ripped, dismantled or otherwise ravaged, Truman is focused on it like a laser. He has an antagonistic relationship with any and all objects at rest.
Amelia is taking a different route. What she lacks in destructive force she makes up for in unbridled independence and defiance. She thinks she's twenty-two and has little need for parents or older brothers interfering in her day-to-day pursuits. From teeth brushing to diaper changes and car seat buckling to eating there is only one thing to remember with Amelia -- SHE DOES NOT NEED YOUR HELP. Should you attempt to intervene, be prepared for a spectacular verbal onslaught of "NO!" and "STOPPIT!" I lose sleep over the thought of what she'll be like as a teenager.
The one area where Truman and Amelia are on the same page is bedtime. Unfortunately, the page they are on is "How Not to Go to Sleep at All Costs." This one has me stumped. Up until recently, Truman and Amelia had been extremely easy to put down for bedtime and naps. No fussing. No complaining. Just walk in, put them in bed and walk out. Now all of a sudden, bedtime is an outrageous ordeal. No matter how tired they are, they will not go to sleep at night. They'll carry on. They'll get out of bed. They'll get in each other's beds. They'll go into Jameson's room. I've seen Amelia start to fall asleep at the dinner table yet fight sleep for over an hour once I put her in bed. It's only slightly maddening. On the bright side, it's so exhausting that I easily fall asleep at night right after they do.
Jameson didn't really have a terrible two stage. Julie and I both thought that with Jameson three was a much tougher age than two. Knowing that, I am not sure if I should be relieved or scared. Maybe Truman and Amelia are getting it out of their system earlier than Jameson did. On the other hand, maybe this is just some grotesque harbinger of the insanity to come when Truman and Amelia reach age three.
On a side note, I baked a cake for Truman and Amelia's birthday. Since we needed two cakes, I asked my mom to bake a second one for me. But it was more than just a simple confectionary request. I basically challenged her to make the exact same recipe I was making. In general, this challenge is a joke because she can bake circles around me. In this particular case it was futility at it's finest since the recipe of choice was actually one of her specialties: Waldorf-Astoria red velvet cake. I've never tasted one as good as hers and I've never made one much more than edible. Comparing our two cakes was almost laughable.
Mine tasted better as batter.
The losing cake.
The winning cake.
