Baby Spice

"Sugar and spice and everything nice. That’s what little girls are made of.”

That’s part of the classic poem. There’s more about “sunshine and rainbows and ribbons for hair bows,” but it seems lately we’ve been getting a little more spice than is called for in the recipe. It seems like we’re having a bit of a sugar ration at the old household.

Now I know two-year olds have their “terrible” stages and it’s just a part of what kids do, but I’m really beginning to wonder if there is some sort of curse your parents cast on you as you get older that manifests itself into your own kids. Some sort of payback. And when do I get to cast it on MY kid?

To be fair, Finley really is a good kid and she certainly doesn’t have the typical toddler temper tantrums. It’s just that she goes through modes and moods where she likes to test us… all the time. Sometimes she’ll climb up on the coffee table and wait for us to tell her to get down… and not get down. Or she’ll run into the living room, knock over a chair and wait for us to tell her not to do that and then run back in the living room and knock the chair over again.

And it doesn’t matter how many time outs we give her or how many times we try to explain to her how important it is to listen to Mommy and Daddy, she just likes to push our buttons.

Maybe that’s her job at this point. And maybe it’s not really about how she learns to listen and obey. Maybe right now, it’s all about how WE deal with it. Nah, she’s just being a brat.

But for all the table standing and chair tipping and all the other million things she does to drive us crazy, every once in a while she brings us a little taste of sugar that makes everything all better. Now and again she’ll randomly come up and want to hug me or even crawl up on the couch and lay her head on my shoulder for no reason except to be next to her Poppa. Sometimes she’ll lean over and kiss me on the cheek and even say “I love you, Daddy.” It doesn’t happen all the time, but it doesn’t need to, really.

It’s just nice to know that as I’m carrying a kicking and screaming table-stander to her room for a time out, all I have to do is wait a little while and I’ll have my cheek smoocher nearby.

And over time, hopefully the level of spice and sugar will begin to level out. That is, until the teenage years. But for now, I’ll take what I can get and start practicing the incantation that will put the curse on her kids.