the terrible twos

despite being a preemie and only 18 months old, bryn seems to have already entered the terrible twos. at least we hope she has, because we may not be able to take it if she gets any worse. most of the time, she is still sweet and adorable. but, if she doesn't get her way... sometimes, she goes with passive resistance - laying down, going limp and becoming dead weight. other times, she goes with the more standard tantrum - throwing herself to the ground, crying and kicking. usually, it is a combination of the two. she has also started hitting and pulling hair. the other day, she and one of the neighbor boys, who is about one year older, had a full-on knock-down drag-out fight. at least she doesn't let herself be bullied, i guess.

the good news is that bryn has been picking up more words (up, down, bye, monkey, kwa-kwa (quack-quack) for duck and, finally, mama - yay!) and is learning that they can be used to get things that she wants, so hopefully the pre-verbal tantrum phase will pass sooner rather than later.

we experimented with giving bryn a bath in a swimsuit (with me, also in a swimsuit, also in the tub), but i think that may have just made her afraid of swimming pools as well (the photos below were pre-bath).


we're also teaching bryn good eating habits...


but in our defense, she fell from the 5th to the 3rd percentile in weight, so she needs to fatten up anyway. her head moved up from the 50th to the 75th percentile though... poor girl. finally, her favorite toys these days are dolls, in all sizes... in fact, i think i've given the dolls more baths than bryn, as part of our grand plan to entice her back to bathing.