Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

Splashing in puddles
When I took Ellie to the pediatrician a few weeks ago, the Doctor said, "Be prepared: the 'terrible two's' actually start around 14 months." At the time, I just gave her a perplexed smile and patted my sweet baby on the head. "Not my little girl" I thought. Of course I was naive to think that Ellie wouldn't be one of the kids that goes through this trying stage. She has been headstrong, stubborn and overly active since birth. I am actually surprised that the Terrible Two's didn't start at 2 weeks. It's not that Ellie is terrible, or even bad - she is actually a very good, sweet kid - it's more that we have reached the stage where we're having a fundamental problem communicating with each other and its getting frustrating on both ends.

She can't say much, but she always knows what she wants (never wishy-washy in the least). It's the times she wants something that she can't express that get the most frustrating. Thus begins the whining. Ok, I'll admit it, I was a big whiner when I was a kid (and maybe even still a little bit now) but I still hold a double standard because I really, really hate listening to whining. So, in order to cut back the frustration that Ellie feels not being able to say what she wants and the frustration we feel when we're frantically trying to figure out the source of the whine ("are you hungry? do you want your socks off? is that sippy cup on your tray making you mad? do you want to hold that roll of scotch tape?), we began teaching her a little bit of sign language a few weeks ago.

Elise signing that she's hungry
She actually caught on to it extremely quickly, especially considering that she is in daycare where they do not sign to her. Through sign language, she can now let us know when she's hungry, when she's thirsty, when she needs help, and when she's finished (she also lets you know she wants to go outside by bringing you your shoes and that she needs a diaper change by bringing you a diaper - not sign language, but the message is clear) Much to my dismay though, this enormous stride in communication did not completely eliminate the whining, but it has gotten a little better.

Elise mid-tantrum with Opa
Of course the word that she can communicate the most clearly is "noooo" and she exercises this quite often, especially when it comes to food (she has suddenly become a very picky eater, something that is particularly annoying since she is allergic to 90% of all food and therefore has very limited choices). But like her Mommy, Ellie has a double standard too. As much as she loves saying no, she hates hearing it. I swear you'd think usually we let her get away with everything (not even close) with the way she reacts when you tell her she can't do/have something ("no, Elise you cannot play with the oven knob"... cry, cry, tantrum... "Lysol is not for babies to play with"... tantrum cry, cry).

And yet despite the whining and hating it when she doesn't get her way, Ellie is probably the most fun she's ever been. She has quite a sense of humor and pretty much everything cracks her up (she put a little bowl on her foot while she was in the bathtub last week and she laughed hysterically about it for 25 minutes). She gets so excited about things, you can't help but get excited too (you're right! it is a dog! hurray!) and she has also started running up to me and Marty randomly and giving us hugs and kisses (melt my heart!). So really, for every time I want to pull my hair out because she is yet again trying to stand up in her high chair, there are fourteen times she does something that makes me laugh until I cry or smile until I've formed permanent smile lines on my face. I'd say that's a fair trade.