life with a two year old.

life with a two year has proven to be quite interesting and difficult, if I'm being honest.

Joe and I are usually at a loss of what to do and how to react to most situations Genevieve puts us in.

She is definitely full of spice.

I have been reading up on "positive parenting" and trying to give her positive attention for doing good things and trying to show her what to do instead of the negative behavior.

I've also been trying to stay extremely calm and patient, so she can't feed off my negative energy

so...

the key word here is "TRY"

I remember my parents always saying "you didn't come with an instruction manual"

now I totally get what they meant.

Joe and I want so badly to do it right and seem to fall short, very short on most days.

Everyone is a PERFECT parent before they have kids 

before I had Genevieve I always thought:

oh my kids will never hit

never say "no"

never scream in public

etc. etc. etc.

well unfortunately, with all our best efforts genevieve

tends to hit, a lot.

"no" is one of her most used words

and she screams in public, sometimes.

Around our house these are our most common phrases:

us: "genevieve, do we hit?"

g: "no, we hug!"

us: "genevieve, what is the proper way to ask?"

g: "peease"

us: "genevieve, do we say no?"

g: "no, say yes mommy"

us: "genevieve do we scream inside?"

g: "no outside" followed by tiny little screams instead

us: "genevieve do we touch?"

g: "no look with eyes"

this is genevieve looking at her nutcrackers daddy brought her home from Germany

looking with her eyes, not her hands

if it is too quiet she has usually crawled up on the piano to "look" with her eyes

which on most occasions tends to be very difficult.

(don't ask me why she is naked, with just a bib on, she is two)