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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Terrible Twos

You're usually very affectionate with Minnie, but for the last couple of weeks you've occasionally decided to get a rise out of her/us by being aggressive, slapping her or once even biting her. All the books say that this is a normal toddler reaction to having a new sibling - a phase that should quickly pass - and that the best way to respond is to calmly explain that hurting Minnie makes us all sad.

What the books don't say is that it's really hard to remain calm. Seeing you be so suddenly and uncharacteristically mean, and hearing Minnie's pained and frightened cry, is extremely upsetting.

You've been big enough to use normal chairs for a while now, so the high chair has been left in the spare room. Whenever you do something naughty you spend a few minutes on the high chair until you're ready to come back and apologise. But it often seems like you're not taking the punishment seriously. I suppose it's a testament to how safe and loved you feel that you find it hard to believe we're ever really angry with you.

Thankfully your behaviour is delightful far more often than not. (And you even seem to have overcome your brief phase of having a five-minute screaming fit for no reason at pretty much the same time every day...)

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