But I WANT It!

Have I mentioned that Natalie has become a complete terror?

She must have everything she wants. And she must have it right now. Or else she will cry about it for 3.2 hours.

Which is why she wore 7 shirts and no pants down to breakfast the other day.

Then, if she does get what she wants and it doesn't meet her expectations, she will also dissolve into a tantrum. On this occasion when she wanted to fit her head between two pillars in our stairs and, finally, was able to, she remained angry long after I helped wedge her out.

Unfortunately, she has been so cantankerous, we've had to put potty training on hold. She was eliminating inappropriately to get a rise out of us. At first, I tried ignoring it. But when she stood on her highchair at breakfast one morning and peed onto the table, I had a acknowledge that this wasn't working. So I put her in diapers, which she is quite unhappy about. The first day, she just rolled around all day grabbing her diaper and shouting. It's terribly frustrating because she exhibited such physical readiness, but her emotional maturity is lacking. She still uses the potty about half the time. Sometimes when I make the mistake of leaving her unattended, I come back to a scene like this.

I can't hardly take a shower without her taking off her diaper and peeing on something. Once in a while, it will be her potty, but the result is just the same, as she picks it up and sloshes the contents all over. 

She's been making a few strides lately, though. In her Highlights Hello magazines, there is a little find it puzzle that she was doing well with, so we got her an I Spy board book yesterday and she does surprisingly well picking out some of the objects. Also, she randomly started counting yesterday. For weeks, if not months, she has been repeating, "one, one, one" and I have been trying to get her to just say two or three. Then when Micah was home yesterday, she randomly counted to five, then threw in a seven, and later added eight, nine and ten. Wow!