Peaks and Valleys

Not even a month ago I wrote about the challenges of battling a two-year-old. Funny thing is, almost as soon as those words were published online, everything changed again, and whoever that crazy demonic bipolar little monster was, has since disappeared, or is at least in hiding for the moment. Skyler has not only been pretty good and agreeable lately, she’s been hilarious to be around. She’s at such a goofy stage where she just loves to play jokes and say things that make us laugh. And it’s still not hard to make her laugh, so there’s pretty much a lot of laughter in this household lately.

She can still trash a room in under 60 seconds, but her “helping” skills continue to come in handy, and she enjoys doing it. Like today, Ronnie and I were lounging on the couch but the remote had fallen off the side of the couch and skid across the floor. Once we realized we needed it, neither of us wanted to get out from under our comfy blankets, so we just asked Skyler to get it. She jumped happily to the task, and it worked out great for everyone! She also enjoys feeding Bruno and letting him in and out the back door, so we let her help with that as much as she wants!

When it came to nap time today, Ronnie and I decided we needed naps too. We’ve always tried to get Skyler to nap with us in our bed on these occasions, but either she doesn’t want to be in there at all, or she just wants to talk and play in our bed, so it never works out. But today, we tried again, and Skyler actually snuggled right in, and despite about ten minutes of her trying to start some conversations, we kept reminding her to close her eyes and “shhhhh let’s go nite nite for a nap,” and soon enough, she was out on the pillow between Ronnie and me. The extra body produced a bit extra warmth than we’re used to, so we didn’t get as good a nap as we’d hoped. But it was pretty nice to snuggle up and nap with Skyler for once!

I’m sure now that I’ve written how wonderful things have been, tomorrow her alter ego will return and I’ll be back to questioning my parenting skills and researching toddler psychotherapy. But at least I got it down for memory’s sake!