Return of an Old Friend

Yesterday Alyce had a return of an old friend. I brought her crib upstairs from the basement. In the past we took down her crib in efforts to push her into a Big Girl Bed. The crib is being brought back for use by Luke.

I had the crib 90% assembled when Alyce woke from her nap. Upon leaving her room she immediately fixated on her old pal and gleefully exclaimed "fixed it the crib!". I never told her that the crib was hers I just acknowledged that is was a crib and was for babies. I went on further to ask who's crib this was? She responded with "baby Luke crib". She moved over to the door of the crib and asked if she could get in. It didn't have mattress or box spring installed yet but I let her go in anyway and she proceeded to run around the crib, banging off the walls, and having a great time. Alyce must have grown quite a bit since we took her out of the crib; without the box spring and mattress Alyce was taller than the top of the crib. If those were installed I figure the crib would meet her at the abdomen.

To test the waters I asked Alyce where her bed was and she pointed to her new room rather than the crib. Based on that I think it is probably safe to move Luke into Alyce's old room as she has broken her ties to babydom. It is the close to another chapter of her life and yes it is kind of sad, but having her in a big bed is so nice it is hard to stay sad for long.

Emotion Explosion

I can see why some people say the twos are so terrible. You have this person who has the physical capacity to do just about anything, but lacks the mental capacity to grasp complex concepts or verbalize their wants and needs.

A good example of this today is Alyce and a kitchen table chair. She pushed a chair into the corner of the kitchen and stood on it to play with some bowls. I didn't have a problem with her doing this because she is sure on her feet and I could use her diversion to get some kitchen cleaning done. Later on when I was finishing up with the kitchen and Alyce had moved onto make a mess someplace else in the house I moved the now vacant chair back under the table. You would have thought that I closed Alyce's hand in the door with the fit of screaming she let out. Why would something as simple as moving a chair cause so much distress? I can only assume it is because she processes things differently than us or can't vocalize that she wasn't done with the chair yet. Luckily she didn't dwell on it as we started playing with her wooden train set she received for her birthday.

I look forward to Alyce making that mental breakthrough. It will be refreshing to hear her opinion on subjects. Like does she prefer chocolate or vanilla? Or whether blue or red is really the best color (it is red by the way). I'm sure with that increased understanding there will be other obstacles. I've heard the threes are more terrible then the twos.