She’s two and a half. She’s my DD2. She’s really switched on, clever, quite advanced in terms of her speech. Whatever DD1 (aged 5) does, she needs to do it too. She is very very wilful and stubborn.
She is an affectionate and loving wee soul but has always been a live wire (her and DD1 are chalk and cheese). As a baby she slept during the day in 20-minute stints, so bad was her FOMO. She was always on the go. Things got easier and she calmed down a bit when she got onto her feet. She goes to nursery 3 days per week (while I work) and seems to enjoy it. She needs to be kept busy and stimulated and nursery certainly does that.
The past month or two however, her behaviour has nosedived. She’s doing things that she knows full well are naughty (drawing on walls, throwing food, deliberately spilling her juice etc). I know it’s all standard toddler behaviour but she laughs when told no. She will actually run towards the wall to draw on it when she sees me coming because she knows I’ll lift her away and she wants to do it before I get to her.
She is destroying my house if I’m honest. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle with it. She’s wrecked the couch. She deliberately breaks or spoils things. She worships the ground DD1 walks on (and DD1 is a brilliant big sister) but she will wind her up by hitting her for no reason or scribbling on pictures etc.
The absolute worst, however, is the car seat thing.
We have a Cybex Sirona. We wanted to ERF our girls because we do a lot of motorway driving. It cost us a bloody fortune. She can escape the damn thing. It doesn’t matter how tight the straps are (we have adjusted the height as well) she will persevere until she gets her arms out then she’s practically rolling around in the back of the car. She KNOWS this is serious. I will pull over at every opportunity to put her back in but half the time she’s back out of it before I’ve even started the car back up. She thinks it’s hilarious. “I am BAD MUMMY!!!”
It’s so stressful. I have tried her in grandparents car seats etc and the result is the same. She will not stop until she’s out.
Sorry that was a novel. I just have no clue how to deal with it. I know it is a phase and this too shall pass but she’s trashing my house in the meantime. DD1 was a dream toddler she was so easy going so I have never really had to do this. I am however conscious of expecting too much of her. She is after all only 2.5...