Two point five

Melina is now firmly established in her twos. Every once in a while I think "oh, this two thing isn't so hard," and I assure my friends that their 1.5-year olds are much more difficult. And then there comes a day like today, when somebody seemed to have whisked Melina away to another dimension and replaced her with the Child From Hell. I suspect that she did not sleep at preschool (they went to the pumpkin patch, which was probably way too exciting). Around 5:30 she started on a major meltdown that lasted about 45 minutes. She had been playing with water and got her teeshirt wet, and she was determined to take it off herself. On the other hand, her alternate personality wanted help taking off the teeshirt. At one point she was yelling "I want to do it MYSELF!! HELP ME!". What are you supposed to do with that? I tried helping and got thoroughly screamed at, but if I didn't help she broke down in tears and began banging her head against the floor, screaming. I approached her, I ignored her. I ate my dinner (Jeff was at a work party). I finally forcibly removed the objectionable item of clothing (which she had pulled down around her waist), and she became hysterical. Finally she calmed enough so I could hold her, and we lay down on the couch for a few minutes. Then she ate dinner (only the outer edges of the tortellini) and took a bath. In the bath, she was completely manic, sloshing the water around and wanting to stand up and "swim" in the bathtub. She was completely and utterly over-tired. I read to her for about an hour and told her endless stories about how Melina and her little friend Amanda swam through the ocean finding the mommies and daddies of little lost jellyfish. Finally, exhausted, in denial, she fell asleep. And now I probably will too.