the tip of two

Beatrice will turn two next week. I'm noticing that she has quite a lot to say these days. I don't remember Vivienne speaking so much. (Although I can't shut her up now and she is very funny, sometimes.) I also don't remember V having such an opinion at two. Bebe has to negotiate everything from what to eat to what to wear. She has to be given a choice. I think I was still dressing V at this point. It is hard to have such a definite little creature in the house. She can't exactly express what she wants although we can have a conversation in which she tells me that the contractor who works on our house is her friend Steven. And that she also has a friend Steve who gave us a new potty. (The plumber is also a Steve.) Yet if you don't understand her at just the crucial moment she melts.....literally. Sinks to the floor, becomes a heap of crying and won't be consoled. That is unless you mention one of her favorite things...chocolate, candy, cookies. Maybe she's an elf.

It is very acrimonious in our house at the moment between B coming into her own and V trying to keep everything from her. Vivi has a new game of keep away which apparently involves taking away whatever B is playing with and looking for things which Bebe wants to play with and take that away too. Sometimes some shoving is involved and always lots of tears. Overly dramatic is the response, so much so that V gets reprimanded more harshly just to stop all the fuss. That's not kind to Vivi though so we need to figure out a better tactic but what, I don't know.

Some of the time is spent in very cute play where they have very lengthy conversations about what to do and how to do it. I usually don't get involved for fear that I may screw up the sister magic but I do try my best to eavesdrop when I can.
Beatrice can now say "Vivienne" quite well but still falls back to Yayee or Lalee when she shortens her name. It makes me wonder if that is what she thinks we say when we shorten V's name. I secretly hope that it sticks but won't encourage it since I think about how Mom stills calls her sister Doodie even though it isn't even remotely close to her real name of Shirley. It's all said with love so how can you argue against it?

Meanwhile we can't seem to find the right groove with Phoebe and the solid food thing. She still screams throughout the entire meal which makes me want to shove it in faster and stop feeding her all at the same time. She wants to take the spoon but then won't accept the fact that the spoon doesn't have food on it. And eventually it becomes an unhappy Phoebe with a frazzled parent given up and going for the liquid diet. She does seem quite interested in the eating with her hands when I give her "o"s or grahams or bread or something she can gum. Maybe I should just strip her down and put a whole bunch of mushy food in front of her and let her figure it out herself.