Acting like a 23-month-old

The closer Katie gets to 2, the more she acts like a "2-year-old." It's interesting that being 2 is constructed as an insult in our culture. Of course there's a reason why. On Monday, for example, Katie insisted on walking to the butcher (a short 2 block walk). I told her fine, but she'd have to walk both ways, but if she walked both ways, she could get raisins at our final stop at the market in our building. The market has lots of little snack packs of raisins at the registers for the kids who shop there. Now wouldn't you know that she walked both ways and we got to the register and there were no raisins! I tried to explain it to her, but when we got out the door she said in a little sad voice, "Mommy? Raisins?" So I spoke to the manager and I got her a little box. She was happy.

But I got off topic for a minute - back to Katie acting like a 2-year-old. Katie's new thing is that she's scared of Daddies who aren't her own and she's generally shy around people she doesn't know, especially men. So we were at the butcher and only men work there and she becomes freightened when one of them spoke to her. So I'm paying for the chicken and she's crying and lying on the sawdust covered floor. Not wanting to respond to this mini-tantrum, I walked to the door and told her it was time to go. She crawls on the floor to the door and then gets up and walks out.

But the fear of men is strange. I noticed this when we were at our friend Grace's house and Grace's dad came home. Katie ran to me and put her face in my chest and started crying. Then she did the same when we went to Kevin's house and saw his dad (without the crying this time). Then she hid when Erika's dad came over to our house. She plays shy with the doormen in the building, but isn't scared of them. My friend Kelli thinks it's because Katie is used to a woman-run world. It is true that most of our time is spent in the company of women, especially the social activities of our neighborhood friends, where the only male is her friend Kevin. Very strange and we'll have to see how Katie does with her Papa.