I attribute most of her sassiness to having to adjust to a new baby brother. Upon is arrival home, and her realization that he was not going anywhere any time soon, her horns really started to make their appearance. It began with the refusal to potty train. I know, I know, you're not supposed to potty train a child when you bring home a new baby, but I really wanted to begin the process when she was two because changing two set of dirty diapers is a pain in the @ss. And let me also tell you that my daughter is really smart for her age. I know everyone says that about their children, but I really am amazed at how smart she is. (A little background snippet, she started sign language at 6 months and she was speaking at 9 full sentences at 16 months.) Back to the potty training...EPIC FAIL. She loved all the attention she was getting during this whole process because I read books while she was on the potty and I praised her and rewarded her and she ate it up. Then I started to wean her off of the rewards and books and she no longer found a use for the potty. She would look into my eyes, pees in her underwear and then tell me "I just peed in my underwear!" On yes she did. She would do this at least three times a day. Taking care of a newborn and potty training an attitude filled two year old was not going well and I gave up. (On the potty training.)
I thought that without the frustration of potty training, she would go back to her sweet, only sometimes defiant, self and all would be well in the world...NOT. She got worse! She started to turn into this drama queen who freaked out if you sat on
She was ten times worse when daddy got home because he would fight with her. Come on, you're going to really fight with a two year old? He tried reasoning with her at first, but she was really irrational and he wasn't realistic in his reasoning. He would then get frustrated with her and yell, she would cry, then I would yell at him and try to comfort her and then Tyler would scream and it was just bad all around.
And then something changed. I went back to work, and the kids went to that magical place called daycare. Well, they stayed at home with daddy and Grandma Jane for a week then went to daycare. Her attitude changed dramatically when she went back to daycare. She has always loved daycare and everyone at her center loves her. I'm not exaggerating either. Everyone at daycare knows Kaitlyn and wants her in their room. Her two year old teacher, Miss Stephanie, has been dying to have Kaitlyn in her room. Kaitlyn always was such a good baby at daycare and she was a great toddler there. I think it was because she had a plethora of toys and activities to do at daycare. There is always more than one person giving her attention as well. Even though she only napped for an hour at the most, her teachers didn't mind because she would stay on her mat and read books until the other children woke up. They are very structured at daycare and Kaitlyn loves it because she is big on routines so that is why she does so well.
So once she went back to daycare, she was a totally different child. She listened, didn't have melt downs, she even potty trained within a week of being there. Hallelujah, praise be! She still is very independent and wants to do as much as she can on her own, but she's two and it's totally age appropriate. It's also easier now because Tyler isn't as demanding as he used to be. He's a really chill infant now that he knows how to entertain himself.
Don't get me wrong, she still has melt downs every now and then, but for the most part we can quickly calm her down and she can explain to us what happened or how she's feeling. We let her be as independent as she wants because she now knows that she can try it and if she needs help she can ask. Life is grand and all is calm in our household with a terrific two year old and an almost 5 month old chill infant.
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