hairnets and borscht

My little princess is having one of her days. Yep, emotional meltdowns all around. The last one was because I wouldn't let her throw a Boston Pizza hairnet into the summer borscht. I like the help and all, but I think Mommy should get to decide on the ingredients BEFORE Jordan adds them. It's so cute the way she wants to help with stuff, and someday it might actually be helpful (note the last blog where I was squirted with tilex). This morning I was cutting potatoes by my sink and Jordan was grabbing the potatoes and running across the bench and tossing them into the pot. Last night she tried to get herself a piece of cake. We had family over the other night for cake and coffee, and all the leftover cakes were in one container, probably about 2/3 of a cake worth. There is now NO cake left, as it ended up all over my kitchen floor. This stuff is frustrating. But then there is lots of stuff that she actually does pretty well; she can dress and undress herself entirely, she puts on her own shoes, she can pour her own cup of water from the cooler - not that this is my favorite thing, I've even caught her pouring herself a cup of apple juice from the fridge, and then putting the container back in its spot and closing the fridge up. She's really growing up! And all these messes that she's making when she's trying to "do self" is a learning process. She amazes me everyday. Of course, with all this newfound independence comes the previously mentioned emotional meltdowns. She hates being told she can't do something, or have something. She gets mad when she's trying to do something on her own and she can't figure it out. She really hates having something taken away when she's finally got her little hands on it. Yesterday I was angrily searching for her all over my house, and calling her name. She wouldn't answer me, and it took me a minute to find her. She was under the table hiding amongst the kitchen chairs, quietly munching on a huge wad of gum she had finagled out of my purse. Anybody with little kids knows what happens when a two year old has gum, so I took it away, and she cried, and cried, and cried some more. I did kind of feel bad about it, since she was so happy with the little find, so I gave her something else. I won't say what. Almost as bad.

She was just sitting here on the floor playing beside me, and now she's gone except for a heap of clothes with a diaper perched on top. Suppose I should go find her! How life changes!