Maggie is a screamer…
Feb 4th, 2008 by Bethany
Maggie has become what I call “a screamer” in the last couple of weeks. Any time something doesn’t go her way, NOW!, she lets out a shrill scream. Her face gets all red and her face runs with tears, all over something as little as me not giving her the specific item of food she wanted or Degen playing with a toy she likes. It drives me crazy. The last several mornings, including today, I’ve awoken to her screams. This morning Colin refused to give her more cereal until she finished eating what he’d already given her and she acted like he was torturing her. We’re trying to ignore her as much as possible when she pulls this stunt, in hopes that she’ll quit using it to tell us that she’s unhappy, but piercing screams are pretty tough to ignore.
I’ve also been taken back nostalgically into my own childhood lately as I watch Maggie and Degen interact. The two of them are generally great friends and get along well, but lately I’ve noticed some serious rivalry that reminds me of myself and my younger sisters. Degen will be playing peacefully with one of his toys, say a truck, and Maggie will walk up and decide that looks like fun. She will then wrestle it away from him and book it down the hallway, looking back to make sure he’s following her and grinning at the additional attention she’s earned. She doesn’t even want to play with the toy, she just wants Degen to play with her and/or chase her. Degen, as one would expect, doesn’t understand this and is simply upset that she took his toy. Who can blame him?
Lest you think from my above comments that I think Maggie is generally difficult to deal with, I want to emphasize some of her wonderful and positive qualities. Maggie is learning to talk at an accelerated pace and is much more adept at communicating with us. She can tell us whether she wants water or milk, that she wants cheese or bread or cereal or a banana, and to “let go” or that she ”want down!” She’s just charming! Her hair is getting longer, almost long enough to tie back, and she’s forming opinions about clothes and which ones she wants to wear. She’s easy to put to bed and sleeps all the way through the night plus a couple of significant naps during the day. I really appreciate that about her because we’ve struggled so much with Degen’s sleep habits. Maggie likes people, and typically will go play with just about anyone. She likes to dance to music when I play it on the CD player or computer and she’ll sing along happily. She’s usually obedient and very observant. Last night, I took the kids out for a walk in the rain and Maggie discovered that the concrete sidewalk sounds different when you walk on it than when you walk on the corrugated metal that sits over the drainage area on one of the sidewalks. She danced on that metal and sat on it and kicked her feet happily for several minutes, revelling in the joy of her discovery. I love watching her learn.