two year olds are *hard*

Yesterday I was at work and mr. flea was home with Casper and he had a terrible day of it. They came over to visit me for lunch and she was sort of a mild pill, and then she started crying as we said goodbye and continuted to cry though their 5 minute wait for the bus, the 15 minute bus ride, and half of the 10 minute walk home. Later she cried herself to sleep in the middle of the living room floor (after refusing to nap).

In good news, mr. flea made us some lovely beef stew, and I have leftovers for lunch, and added peas, since everything is better with peas.

Right now it seems that the only thing that makes Casper happy is to watch a video or TV, and we're trying not to rely on that too heavily. She woke up crying and mad at us at 6am today and wanted to watch a video. We said no and endured a 20 minute lying on the floor and crying "I want to watch a video" session before she sniffed a bit and I persuaded her to come into bed and "nurse" for a while. Still fragile for the rest of the time I was home, although she took my departure better than I had expected (i.e. minor crying and not a full meltdown).

I know all of this is developmentally normal: the neediness, the clinging, the assertion of independence, the testing of rules, the orneriness. I know what I am supposed to do, which is be firm but kind, set rules that are inviolable and set guidelines that can be negotiated so she feels she has some power, and always be there being patient, because although she's screaming, "Go away!" she feels abandoned if you actually do.

What I would *like* to do is generally one of the following, depending on the situation: smack her on the ass, put my head down and howl in frustration, or plug her in to the TV and escape to the nearest bar to drink many gin and tonics.

Please, phase, pass quickly.

baby names

Born to the Park Mommy clan:

Jasper, older brother Emmett (not sure of spelling). Since to me Jasper evokes a 90 year old New England bachelor farmer, I find it especially amusing that his father's last name is strongly ethnic Ukrainian, and his mother's equally strongly Italian.

Elliot (not sure of spelling), a girl to be called Elly, older brothers Jonah and Evan. Scrubs notwithstanding, I still consider Elliot a boy's name, and there are tons of things to name your kid if you want to call her Elly.

I also met a 3 month old Florence recently, older sister Laura.

Names in Casper's class at school, almost all approaching 2.5 years: Olivia and Delancey (identical twin girls), Isabelle, Stephanie, Jasleen (girl), Chase, Connor, Evan, Ian, Kabir (boy), Lee (boy). Jasleen's father is a Sikh I think, and Kabir's mother is South Asian, and Stephanie's father is British, and I think everyone else is white Americans.

Names in contention for the Armadillo, at least in my head right now:

Flora, Louisa, Laura, Caroline, Shyanne just checking to see if you were reading, Mary/Maria/Maryanne?, Margaret except that's my boss' name, Sasha except that's RF Dad's name ugh, Alice.

Paul, Peter, Ant(h)ony, Joseph but for the misfortune that will be obvious if you know mr. flea's last name and think of Friends, Edward/win, Jeremiah I wish it's an ancestral name and I love it although it's weird but I really dislike Jerry, William but the world is too abundant in Wills right now and I don't like Bill.