Little Miss

This kid is giving me just a few grey hairs.  Seriously, I now pull one or two out silvery strands a week.  Vivian wants to be moving a lot.  She wants to run, climb, and jump over anything and everything, with very little sense of fear.  I have found her on top of the dining room table, staircases, picnic tables, playground equipment, etc.  Usually when she is discovered she is surprised to be removed and indignant that she cannot complete her task.  She is the quintessential child that you cannot take your eyes off of.

Vivan also has a very defiant streak and will purposefully continue to do something she is not supposed to do, in plain sight.  Earlier this week it was eating crayons (which she does on pretty much a daily basis).  This time I happened to be sitting next to her trying to eat my dinner.
"Don't eat the crayon, Vivian."  She looked at me and stuck in it in her mouth.  I took it away.
She picked up another crayon and put it in her mouth.
"Crayons are not mouth toys, give it to mama."  I take it away.
She picks up the next crayon and chomps down on it.
"NO Vivian, not for your mouth," take the crayon away.
She picks up another crayon and sticks up her nose, where it stays.  She smiles.  Sam shrieks with laughter, which is all the reinforcement she needs.  Before I can retrieve it, she has one in each nostril.  I take all the crayons away.  She has a temper tantrum.

"Just thought I'd check out what's happening outside, mama."

We live on the second floor and on occasion she will go to the baby gate at the top of the stairs and maneuver it until she releases the latch.  The other day I found her halfway down the flight of stairs, carefully taking one stair at a time, walking down them like a little adult going out for the day.  She has tried this several times since then but now I am attune to the noise of the gate opening.

She doesn't really talk very much, saying a few words in English and a few in Spanish (her daycare provider is Spanish speaking).  However, she has perfected yelling, "STOP!" at her brother.  Usually it is irrelevant to the situation, yelling when she is frustrated at something entirely unrelated.  Once in a while she will follow it up by hitting him.  Sam will be playing nearby and Vivian will become frustrated with her toy or by not being allowed to do something (cut with scissors for instance).  She will walk over to him and scream "STOP!" with her little hands flailing.  Sam will immediately yell, "Mom, Vivian is yelling 'stop' at me!" (in case I didn't hear her), then looks at her and yells, "don't yell 'STOP!" to which she immediately responds "STOP!"  A lovely exchange between siblings, particularly in the car.

Getting dressed is a whole other ball game.  It is like an activity that I have created specifically to torture her with on a daily basis.  When I am working and need her to be ready in the morning, it usually takes both Chris and I to get her dressed in a timely manner, by which I mean under ten minutes.  It starts by me retrieving her clothes, her spotting me, and leaving the room.  I then say, "Vivian, time to get dressed!" and she takes off through the apartment to the corner of the kitchen where the washing machine is.  I get her and bring her back to the starting point.  Sometimes I manage to get one or more items of clothing off.  Sam will sit on the couch and cheer like this is a sporting event.  Once it is time for the diaper she is verbally objecting, in the form of wails.  She squirms, rolls, and more times than not, gets away.  Sam will call out, "good move Viv!  Nice side roll!"
Then she runs.  Someone brings her back and holds her down and gets her clean diaper on.  By the time her clothes are being forced on her, she has executed a few more escaping maneuvers, and she is yelling loudly.  This happens every.single.time. that I dress the child, morning, evening, and any necessary clothes changes in between.  Hence her wearing very little clothing this summer.

I'm glad she has confidence, especially as a girl, but her idea of how the world should be and what she should be allowed to do, is pretty amazing.

A top the dining room table when I returned from the bathroom.