the peanut and the terrible twos.

I've always heard of the "terrible twos" but we never experienced them with Jackson. He's never really had a terrible stage- maybe that will come in his teenage years? But Audrey has shown us what this thing is all about... but with a peanut twist. The girl is as sweet as can be- giving kisses, throwing out "I love yous," rubbing your back- and then all of a sudden she hits you with the craziest tantrum you've ever seen. A tantrum that leaves you wondering if there is something seriously wrong. Of course there's not, she's just being two, but it's enough to test the limits of your sanity. But more than the tantrums which don't really happen that often is the hellish time of the evening that most people refer to as "bed time." Every night- ever.single.night- Jackson goes to sleep as directed and then Audrey starts her countless tours out of her bedroom. She makes trip after trip after trip to deliver her laundry list of excuses on why she is in fact not in her bed or even remotely close to falling asleep. I then calmly (most of the time anyway) walk her back to her bed in silence, avoiding eye contact and put her back in her bed.  Again and again and again. We do this little dance for hours. And eventually she gives up and goes to sleep around midnight. And then wakes up anywhere between 3 and 5am and runs into my room and climbs up into my bed. At that point I surrender and let her sleep with me because lets face it, between her antics and Jonah still not sleeping through the night even I am ready to give up at some point. And if you're thinking, "just spank her" or "do this or that"... trust me, I've done it all- Audrey withstands all punishment and usually with a smile on her face. It's the peanut way.

This photo is from Monday when I finally had to wake her at a little before 11:00am so we could go pick Jackson up from school. After a week of lasting to almost 1am every night and then refusing to nap many days I guess she finally had to catch up on sleep. So now, who wants Audrey to come over for a sleepover?!