We have baby talk.

Otter has begun to express himself in strange and adorable words the past couple of weeks.

My favorite word so far is “Waer”.

Instead of the infamous wawa that befalls most toddlers when asking for water, Otter has sounded the word out with the “t”. So he will point at a fountain and say “Waer ma sa ma! Waer!” (That’s me, Ma sa Ma, not Mama, he seems determined to do everything just slightly differently than everyone else, why do I have the sense that I am in for it in the not too distant future?)

The stopper is definitely out of his flow of words, he is coming out with new ones every day. He said nurse the other day, “what’s this”, “slide”, “lily” and more come each day. It’s funny, because he tries really hard to say each word precisely, which seems to be way he waits so long to say them. He won’t try to say a word until he has it down to almost the exact cadence, and then he’ll belt it out. It makes for some pretty amusing baby words. Such as “waer”, I suppose.

He is getting very “two” as we say, stubborn and angry at his limitations in expression. When he wants something he will grab my hands and try to make me do what he wants. If he wants to leave a place he will take my hand to the door and try to make me turn the knob. If he wants me to wipe his face he will put my hand on a napkin and then to his face. If he wants a snack he will drag me to the refrigerator, etc. It’s a very strange experience, being made into a human puppet by an angry screaming toddler.

When he gets really mad he starts kicking and hitting now, so we are trying to teach him to stop that. Of course, he is still really sensitive, so when we yell “no” he starts to cry and crumples into a ball of sodden sad baby.

We are generally getting pretty frustrated all around here.

We thought Monkey was our terrible two but it’s starting to be pretty good odds around here that she was a cakewalk compared to Otter.

A few days ago Nana picked Monkey up in her big new truck for an overnight. Everyone made a big deal out of the truck, even Monkey talked about how much better she could see from her car seat. Otter was getting really excited about the truck, but then everyone drove away, and left … him… behind. He was really upset about being left out. He stood at the window crying for about twenty minutes. He yelled at me on and off for about two hours. I told him repeatedly that he and I were going somewhere special after his nap but there was no comforting that young man. Finally he exhausted himself and fell asleep.

The minute he woke up he took his shoes to me and said “shoes.. go”. I told him we still had 30 minutes until we were meeting our friends. I ended up leaving early and cleaning out my car for fifteen minutes instead of dealing with another two year old meltdown. He finally felt better after he got to go to Stapleton’s central park with Ma sa ma and her friends, and play in the fountain, run around on the playground, stay up late, and eat pizza.

The next day when Nana dropped Monkey off she asked Otter for a kiss. He looked at her, shook his head, and walked away.

Terrible two’s here we come.