The "F" Word

It's laundry day, can you tell? =)

While folding laundry, I was reflecting on my friend, K's, blogpost about her 1 year old "diva" who throws a screaming fit at the most inopportune times if she feels she's been in her stroller too long, like at the checkout in the grocery store. It cracks me up, but it reminded me of my very opinionated first child, who I had mentioned on here earlier was an early talker (18 months) who pronounced nearly all of her words perfectly.... but then I just remembered this one.

Kt, when she sets her mind on something, just cannot give up until she gets what she wants. She still pounds around the house when she disagrees with our rules, and it really doesn't matter that we stay our ground. When she thinks she's entitled to something she will stop at nothing to communicate that. I can remember when she was around 15 months and I had just pulled out a bunch of summer hand-me-downs and put them in her drawer how excited she was. She wasn't yet able to verbalize what she wanted, but she would stand in her crib watching me pull out each outfit and scream if it was the wrong one, then jump up and down for joy at the correct one. Silly thing! (K - this is what you have to look forward to, perhaps!!)

Anyway, one of the words when she started trying to speak that she had some trouble with was the word "walk", which tended to sound like the "f" word - I think you know which one! We would laugh about it at play group, at home, with our family and it never posed any kind of embarrassment until that day... We decided to head out to the mall for dinner one night, which was a rare treat when Kt was that young. We didn't go often because we were on a very tight budget. We packed up everything and off we went.

When we got to the mall, we opened up that stroller, knowing we'd want it for our adventurous toddler, who was now walking, running and shoplifting everywhere!! It was all fine until we opened the door to the mall (still a favorite destination for this child!). We pushed that stroller through the door and Kt looked back at us and said, "F$%#!!!" I said, "No." She then repeated, "I want to F$^&!" Tony and I just looked at her and agreed, "No, you need to stay in the stroller!"

It's then it all began (or ended??), when she started screaming at the top of her lungs much to our horror and dismay, "I want to F$&#! I want to F$^#%! I want to F$^#&!!!!" Her face was red, our faces were a deeper red as we turned to each other, admitted defeat and promptly pulled her out of the stroller to she could F%^$&! That was one word we worked on daily until we got it just right!!;-)

So, good luck, K! I'm sure there will plenty more embarrassing moments. Just remember - we're all laughing with you, and as bad as it seems to you at the time, they are memories you will laugh about for years to come and the rest of the world? We know that kids are what make life fun!