It appears as though the terrible twos have descended upon us. For about the past three days or so (maybe less, but it seems like an eternity), Sophie has taken to throwing tantrums for no apparent reason, crying more than she has since she was an infant and adding the screaming back in as well.

On the flip side, she is so polite it hurts. She says "Yes, Mom" and "Thank you, Mom" when we're able to talk without the screaming and crying and it's positively adorable. Unfortunately, five minutes of screaming and five minutes of cute do not balance each other!

Did I mention the screams?

Sometimes, when she decides screaming is the only answer, it takes her quite a while to calm down. She will scream so loudly and for such a long time she can't hear anything I have to say, so the discovery period takes that much longer. This morning she crawled into bed with us to cuddle with Mommy (I love when she does this), decided she needed to get up for some reason, and then proceeded to scream absolute bloody murder after she'd gotten out of the bed. She refused to calm down. I still don't know what was wrong. I doubt very much if she even knows (or remembers) what was wrong. How very frustrating, for both of us.

However, while she might have only screamed for perhaps a total of fifteen minutes this morning (broken up over a period of time), we've already been awake for one and a half hours and it seems like the majority of my morning has been spent listening to screams. There's no balance at all.

*sigh*

I knew this was coming. I know we were able to hold off on the terrible twos for a bit longer than most. I know she has reached the stage of independence. She refuses help when getting into her booster chair (she climbs up and fastens it on her own). She starts to whine if she can't get the buckles fastened quickly. She then will scream if I even offer help. I don't know how long this will last or what triggers it, though. That's the worst part of it all.

Now that she's calm and being cute, I realize this morning's episode was because she wanted breakfast (far earlier than she would normally eat, too). During discovery, I was able to discern she was hungry and she wanted waffles (definitely not French toast) and grapes. She cleared that plate rather quickly, asked herself for more grapes, replied to herself with a "Sure!" and then smiled when I asked her if she wanted more grapes. I also asked if she would like another waffle or some French toast. She said no to both of those but responded with a nod and a repeat when I asked if she wanted regular toast. She has nearly finished the second plate of food.

God bless that child. She's now sitting at the breakfast table singing songs to Chui Dawg. I have no idea what she's singing, but it's beyond cute. What a silly girl. Cuddles and silliness both are great scream erasers. Now that the silliness has started, I'll go wash her up and bring her to the sofa to sit and cuddle with me for a few minutes. I'll forget all about the screams and we'll have a pleasant morning. She might scream before nap time or she might not. I'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.