I always knew that the greatest thing about being a parent is watching your child turn into a little person, someone with their own likes and dislikes, and strange quirks that are reminiscent of yourself or your partner. Hannah has always been such a sweet and charming baby that it’s been easy to characterize her as an angel. Lately, however, we’ve been working on the word “no.” It hasn’t been the smoothest ride. All of a sudden, my darling little girl is kicking and pounding the floor and saying “No. No. No. No. No. No.” because I won’t let her turn the stereo on, or throw broccoli on the floor. Toast is one thing – that she can throw because Stella will eat it. But no throwing food that will require cleaning on my part.
The hardest part of dealing with her sudden defiance is not laughing, which will only encourage her. Unfortunately she has spectacular comedic timing, which makes it very hard. (Brian: “Hannah, tell me all about your day.” Hannah: “No.”)
It’s a testament to her sweetness that this sudden streak of defiance makes my heart sing. I don’t know where she gets it from, this sweetness (I can hear the snickers clear across the world – yeah, I know it’s not from me.) Apparently as a baby I was a bit of a handful. It must be from Brian, whose baby pictures are incredibly sweet. So she looks like him and is sweet like him – where is the fairness in all this?
Tonight she did something that firmly established that she was not switched at the hospital with some putative love child of Brian’s. When I was a kid I was a horribly picky eater. I would eat corn on the cob and spaghetti with meat sauce and that was about it. I still remember my dad begging me to try ONE YELLOW WAX BEAN. JUST ONE. He even offered me $10 just to try it. It’s a testament to both the stubbornness and disinterest in money that made me the scientist I am today that I refused. But spaghetti – that I could eat – and still can – all the time.
So tonight I made spaghetti and a simple tomato sauce. Hannah has tried plain pasta before and thrown it on the floor (which is fine, Stella will eat pasta) but I thought I would give this a try. She LOVED it. Started kicking and yammering for more. That’s my girl.
