A Will of Iron: The Little Miss Revealed

We are so totally screwed. The little miss is a twelve year old in a one year old's body - she's a drama queen that can weep and sob with the best of them, and she's as stubborn as a mule.

She actually doesn't "cry" that often. The drama queen makes an appearance if the little man has pushed her, or if she doesn't get the attention she feels she deserves at a specific moment. Other than that, it can't really be described as crying. Yelling is the only way to describe it. And this kid is LOUD.

For the first six months I really didn't talk about her very much, let alone write about her. She slept well, she had a lovely disposition and she was the exact opposite of the whiny pooping monster in the next room. I was afraid if I talked about her it would jinx things and she would change. She hasn't changed per se, but her personality is coming out loud and clear. And this girl has some at-ti-tude.

90% of the day she's a fantastic baby, laughing a lot, rarely complaining. But when she's tired or hungry she gets downright ornery. Our friends have taken to calling her "Ida," conjuring the image of a little old lady sitting in her rocking chair yelling for people to bring her things in a voice developed over years of cigarettes and whisky, loud enough so she can hear herself over her failing hearing aid.

Even with standard menu of whining, crying, pooping, and tantrums that coming with living with a three year old, the little man has always been fairly manageable. I now know that the three-year old hell we experience with him is completely normal and in most cases we've gotten off fairly easy. We sleep trained him within a few nights and there was never any doubt that when he was left to cry he would eventually settle himself and go to sleep.

Compared to a lot of babies the little miss still is a really great sleeper, but every few nights "Ida" pays us a visit. And since we're not prone to handing over whisky and cigarettes, she's mad as hell. Where the little man would cry and then settle himself within half an hour after we've popped our heads in a couple of times, Ida will yell forever. And if we go in, it's worse. She's not even really crying, she's just mad. She's fed, she's changed, she's warm enough, she just doesn't want to be in her bed. The second I go in she stops yelling and starts smiling. And then the second I make a move to leave, the yelling starts again. Last night she yelled for over an hour and a half between 2:30am and 4:30am.

It's a good thing she's our second child. We at least had some practice before Ida moved in. We became good at tuning out the crying during sleep training, but this yelling is taking things to a whole new level. The little miss turns one on October 23rd. I'm hoping by then Ida settles in nicely at her retirement home and our little girl can just be one for a while.