Terrible Two's Goes to the Zoo

Labor Day weekend was spent at home nice and quiet. Thursday night before the holiday weekend, our buds Aaron and Kelley said they wanted to go to the zoo. Okay, so Kelley really wanted to go, but Aaron is always up for anything. Last summer I took Olivia and Caroline to the Asheboro Zoo and it was miserably hot, plus the campus is pretty spread out. So, one of the doctors I work with suggested the Columbia Zoo. So, Saturday we went to the Columbia Zoo with Aaron, Kelley and their visiting pal "Barto." We had a great time, and the highlight for us was the monkeys! Olivia was amazed, especially by the chimps we saw swinging from their trees and ropes. There were also lots of smaller monkeys on display that I think confused Olivia because they don't look like traditional "monk-monk's". Here is a link to picture of our trip to the Zoo, plus a video of the chimps swinging. You can hear Olivia in the beginning saying, "monk-monk!"



http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=y81arxi.1m1hkfjq&x=1&y=hqvlr&localeid=en_US

Is it possible to hit the "terrible two's" well before the second birthday? I hear that it is, and I know nobody really wants to see videos of a kid having a fit, but these are two videos I've taken in the past weeks that are a hilarious display of Olivia's drama. And hey, that's what parenting is, the good and the bad! She has lots of little quirky things she wants and doesn't want, but lately, she will express interest in something, then instantly get mad when you give it to her, then will again freak out if you take it away. It must be a game because she usually forgets in the middle of her fit that she is supposed to be upset. In this first video, it was the afternoon of coming back from the zoo. She loves to watch videos of herself on the camera, so I was taking one for her to see. She gets mad apparently, because you hear her say, "no no, stop stop!" She doesn't want me to video after all. Pay attention to her face and fake crying, no tears ever. Then at the end, you hear me ask her if she doesn't want to talk to me, and she says, "No way." Now how do you not laugh at that??

Last video is of another entertaining fit where all she wanted for dinner was her meat sticks. (yeah, I know, barf!) Well, I made the mistake of eating a piece of cheese while she was at her high chair and she lost it because she wanted cheese. I explained she had to eat her meat sticks first. Well this evolved into a full fit that went to the couch where she took the meatsticks with her. Here you see Neil sitting with her on the couch while she is crying, both when he tells her to eat them, and then when he takes them away. Again, how do you not laugh? And if you don't laugh, how do you fix it?

Eventually, we just took them away and told her she was all done. Amazingly, the fit stopped in 30 seconds rather than being drawn out by the presence of the dreaded meat sticks. I can't believe she prefers those things over fresh grilled chicken.