Abigail is testing out ways to make her will a)known and b) fulfilled. For the past few days, she’s been working hard to get me to pay attention to her every second. While she can play contentedly by herself in 10 and 15 minute chunks, she would always prefer to play with me. Or, at the very least, have me sit there and praise her while she is playing. She has recently figured out that interrupting whatever I’m doing can be effective, especially when combined with crying. The pattern is to come over to where I am, cling onto my legs, cry a bunch, then try to obstruct my activities. If I am folding laundry, she will lay on top of the pile where I am stacking the folded clothes. If I am cleaning the kitchen, she will push the dishwasher tray back into the dishwasher and close the door. She will reach up and bang on the computer keys if I’m at the computer, and take away my pen if I’m writing something. If I am able to successfully persevere for a minute or two through these obstructions, she will give up and go back to happily playing by herself for a few more minutes.

This morning I got to witness some inner conflict play out in a little drama. While Abigail does want her own way, she is also very eager to please. A simple warning is usually enough to get her to stop her dangerous activity, relinquish whatever objects she has, and come over for a hug. Today, though, she picked up a wet diaper (recently removed from her bottom) and went walking around with it, pressing it to her face and hugging it (folded up, but still). Her dad asked her to throw it in the trash. She clutched the diaper tighter to her chest, shook her head no, and turned around to head in the opposite direction. He asked her a few more times, and she couldn’t resist coming over to him with the diaper. I held out the trash can. Her dad asked her again to throw the diaper away. Several times, Abigail held the diaper over the trashcan, then shook her head and clutched it safely to her chest. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it, though she wanted so badly to make her dad happy. I finally had to take it from her and throw it away myself, which brought her to tears temporarily until she found something else to play with. It’s hard to be one– the decisions get so much more complicated!