Follow me as you enter...

::::::::THE TODDLER-ZONE::::::::

(Twilight Zone music)

Yep, we have definitely entered into The Toddler-Zone. 

It is so much fun, it really is. We're watching her become a real person. She's playing "pretend" all the time now. Pretending she's cooking things on her kitchen stove, in her play microwave making "Beep"ing noises when pushing the pretend buttons.

She pretends to talk to her Aunts on the phone. 

Pretends to feed her numerous baby-dolls bottles, makes them go "nigh-night," says "Baby woke up!" or "Baby hungry too!!" when it's time for breakfast. 

She's talking and repeating everything. EVERYTHING. It's totally adorable and I'm thankful we haven't had to do any speech correcting (i.e. "No, Sweetie, that's not a nice word").  

Rylee talks about herself in the 3rd person. It's the funniest thing. I think it's largely due to us always saying (almost from the day she was born) "Is Rylee hungry?" "Hi Rylee!" "What's Rylee doing?" "Is Rylee Pretty?" ...and so on. Getting her to make the association with her name as soon as possible. 

Anyway, it gets really funny when she starts really chatting. "Rylee hungry, Mama. Rylee eat soon?"  "Buh Bye soon?? Rylee coming too???" 

She's also REALLY polite! It's so adorable! When I give her a meal in her high-chair she says "THANK you, Mama!!!" (Or Papa). She says "You're welcome" after we tell her 'Thank You.'

---Back to The Toddler-Zone. 

Oh boy. Can we say GIRL? Cause she is awesomely manipulative. She has also gotten quite demanding for whatever it is that she is wanting at the moment. We tell her "Rylee, you need to say 'Please'" and she'll get all smiley and say "YEAH!" as in: "Yeah, Mama, 'Please' - you just said it for me." She does it all with a smile so that makes it "Okay" in her mind. 

"Please."

That is a whole different struggle. She does NOT want to say "Please." It's seriously like we're asking her to go live with a different family. 

She gets her strong-willed personality honestly from both of her parents. So it makes for an interesting fight. It's not that she doesn't understand what we're asking her to do. She completely does. It's an outright defiant act. 

Asking for her Pacifier in a screaming and demanding manner earns her a "Say Please and settle down a little bit, then you can have it." She will instantly calm down, cross her arms in front of her chest, tilt her head up, and walk away. 

Rylee LOVES her pacifier. But when told she needs to say please for it will go ALL DAY, without it until she finally says it at some random point in the evening quietly and timidly. 

Tonight - she was coloring in her coloring books. All fine and well - then I realize that she's coloring on a table, a toy and the tried to color on some adorable wooden blocks I bought a couple days ago. So, we have the "Paper Only" discussion, again. A few minutes later I hear quiet giggling over in the corner. I quietly got up and walked over to see what she was doing... coloring on her baby doll's head. 

"Rylee, is that paper?"

...silence...

:::Meltdown:::

Ooooooh, Yes. We have definitely entered into The Toddler-Zone. That time in you and your child(ren)s life where everything is SO cute and adorable, and so challenging all at once.