Miss Moose Mouse

Without any exaggeration, I can honestly say I just witnessed the worst tantrum that I have yet seen from one of my children. We're talking full out back-arching, red-faced-screaming, ear-piercing-volume yelling, previously-undiscovered levels of hysteria, total emotional meltdown.

I'm afraid that it might be a hint of things to come. Yikes!

Molly, in general, is so sweet, calm, and wonderful. But I remember that somewhere between 18 mos and 24 mos, Ben went through one of his most difficult phases, and I feel that today's meltdown is an indication that Molly is on the same path. It is the time when, developmentally, all trace of baby is gone, and there is only a toddler left. The sweet, little one who used to placidly enjoy whatever you brought into her life, suddenly realizes that there are some things she wants and some things she DOESN'T want...or, rather, would prefer to die a thousand painful deaths rather than be forced to tolerate. No matter what.

Like today...she wanted cheese, but I wasn't quite ready to serve her, as I was already busy cleaning up some stickers that she had put all over the floor. So, rather than wait 20 more seconds, she felt that I left her with no other options than a mind-blowing tantrum.

We're in the time of development when language and speech are improving rapidly, but not nearly as quickly as cognition. So, essentially, she KNOWS now more of what she wants and feels, but can only say it clearly maybe 20% of the time. That...and she has the patience of a toddler. (Though, in the interest of honesty, it had been a long day already by that point for all of us, and she is almost always the picture of excellent patience in a toddler).

Until her language catches up with her brain, I fear we may be in for some rocky times! Though she is generally really sweet and easy-going, when she has set her mind to something, she is unstoppable.

Just for my own memory, here is a list of words that I know she has mastered now: (I included the way she pronounces things for some words in paraenthesis)

mama, dada, ben, nana, papa, granny (neenee), anna, riri, curt (cu), grandpa (gupa), jacob, gigi, water (wawa), banana (nana), cream cheese (tee teese), cheese (cheese), pop corn (pop pop), blueberry (beebee), strawberry, m&m (nemenemenem), no way, all done, okay, please, bear, elephant, monkey (oooeeeaaa), dog, cat, quack quack, baby, lion (roar), tiger (growl), bird, cow (moooo), teeth, poop (poopoo), ball, mine, no, away, up, down, eat, milk, balloon, air plane, car, bus, bike, swing, bed, more, shoe (fwoo), bow, hair, nose, eye, teeth, toes, arm, leg, night night, bye bye, hi, hello, help, juice, hot, dip, hot dog, noodle (noo nle), hat, book, bed, Lauren (lo lo), choo choo, wash wash, bubble, slide, good guys (guh guh any time she hears a siren of some sort), boom, sit, in, out, on, off, chip, bell, alley, ball

I will probably need to add to the list over the next day or two, as I think of things I have missed, but at least this is a start. These are words that she uses independently, or with only the littlest amount of prompting. Not too bad for a 17-mo-old...as if, being a speech-language therapist, I should care or anything:)

Hopefully, while her speech and language catch up to her understanding, we can make it through these next few months without too many repeats of today!