It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Things have gotten so crazy! We are moving to a new state (only 30 minutes away though) and a new house, are home owners for the first time, my Etsy shop is keeping me busy and preparing for the Christmas season seems almost impossible! What makes this all 1000 times worse is that my toddler is OCD. I know it’s normal, but it really makes things inconvenient sometimes, especially when we are all stressed out! Here are a few ways that Erin displays this normal toddler behavior:
1) Now that she can wash her hands without help, she INSISTS on getting off her chair HERSELF, walking to the bathroom HERSELF, turning on the water HERSELF, washing her hands HERSELF, and drying her hands HERSELF. She also has decided that throwing the towel on the floor rather than giving it to us (she can’t reach the rack to hang it back up HERSELF). If we mess up this procedure in the exact order described, it’s a major meltdown. Did I mention that she likes to do all of this with the door closed!?!
2) Bath time MUST be followed up with a dance party in the living room. Mommy and Daddy are required to participate and Erin MUST have her towel still on. If we don’t give her a countdown until jammies…..meltdown.
3) Taking food from mommy and daddy’s plate is perfectly okay to HER, but us taking ANYTHING from her plate is a DISASTER! Last night, we had macaroni with a sweet potato sauce. Daddy decided to doctor his up with some Sriracha sauce. Erin insisted she have some too although we all knew she wouldn’t touch it (it’s really spicy). Ping puts a SMALL dot on the corner of her plate. She refuses to eat it when we ask. Towards the end of the meal, I ask Erin if she is going to eat her sauce. She says no, so I just took a little off her plate for myself. (I wanted to see how it would taste with the macaroni)……MELTDOWN. I had to laugh at this one because she just insisted that we put some more sauce back on her plate JUST SO SHE COULD HAVE SOME SAUCE ON HER PLATE LIKE DADDY!
4) Since we are packing boxes to move to the new house, Erin likes to help. Is it helpful….in some ways, yes. But what she INSISTS on happening is that EVERY box MUST be decorated with HER markers. Once a box is taped shut, she MUST color it! I sure hope the movers can find the labels on each box!
5) If any one of Erin’s insisted routines is out of order or even starts to become how she DOESN’T want it, she INSISTS on starting it all over again. This gets really old and frustrating when you are on a time crunch!
Despite all of this, I do enjoy her independence and development of her own personality. It’s fun to see her learning new things and wanting to control her own little world in a certain way. I know this time will only be for a season and that’s okay with us.
Here’s Erin on Halloween with her friend “Di di.”
Life With A Rainbow 