A territorial toddler

Gracie is becoming increasingly territorial. Now, I know the word 'mine' is a common favourite among toddlers, but, as usual, Grace is taking this to new levels. She's been grabbing Baby Isaac's hand when I'm holding him, and when I've tried to release her clutch, has insisted 'mine.' What, his hand, or his whole being, Gracie?! Anyway. A few weeks ago a friend came over with her little girl, around the same age as Gracie. When it came to home time, the little girl had Grace's Peppa Pig phone (fake phone, don't worry) in her hand. Grace was struck by a new terror: what if her friends could actually take her things away forever?  And this fear struck deep, as despite getting the Peppa Pig phone back, the terror has remained within. Last week, we met said friends again and, within five minutes, Grace was running up to me to announce that her friend had been claiming her t-shirt as her own and saying 'mine' while grabbing it. I highly doubt it, since the T-shirt was really not very appealing. But I think her friend may have touched the t-shirt as her way of saying hello and - ahoy - Grace immediately jumped to catastrophic thinking. It must be a family trait.

So the day before yesterday, when we were set to meet our friends again, Gracie wondered if, this time, the friend might try and take off her entire outfit. 'I don't think so', I told Gracie, trying to assure her that someone would not be able to achieve such a feat as stripping her of her outfit, even if they wanted to (which I doubt anyone would). And we set off. But Grace was worried that, because she didn't have her Peppa Pig phone and that had been the object of desire previously there still might be some justification behind her fear of losing her outfit: she didn't have the Peppa Pig phone ergo the outfit would have to be its substitute. 

This morning it reached new levels with Gracie again, as most things do. She put on her underwear and declared that if we went to meet her friend, she might 'snatch' her knickers from her too. Goodness me, her paranoia has reached dizzying heights. Whatever next?

The fear was reiterated tonight for the final time. As Gracie started to settle into bed for the night, she clutched her Peter Rabbit teddy. She pointed at the radish on his jacket and then said 'Mummy, if I have a friend over, and they come up to my Tinery (word for her bedroom), then they could snatch Peter Rabbit from me.' Hmmm, clearly the stuff of nightmares for a two-year-old.

I can't help thinking this is how world wars start. It begins with the toddler-mentality that someone might take something precious away - that's the seed - and that it has to be defended at all costs. Just a shame the toddler-mentality which triggers major wars and greed for land/power comes in adult bodies. 

In the meantime, Gracie's new thing is to be busy building dens. She is gracious (pardon the pun) enough to invite me in and sometimes even builds a space for Daddy. Yesterday she laid out four blankets and pointed at them: 'one for you, one for me, one for Daddy and one for Baby Isaac', she announced. She also created a 'nest' today in response to watching a programme on TV about flying squirrels and the way they build nests. Her imaginary world definitely seems to mimic the things she's seen on TV. 

As I write this, the 'tinies' are both fast asleep. I've found myself looking forward to this part of the day more and more. Though annoyingly all I want to do right now is eat CHOCOLATE by the bucketfuls. And I ate the bag of Maltesers that I ordered with my supermarket online shop yesterday, so I'm out of luck. I think I ate the last 4 this morning, actually, with my cup of tea. I can only think that my massive craving for sugar is because Isaac woke me at 3am, then 5 and then, finally, and for good, at 5.50am. He was most excited to come downstairs. I was quite excited, too, at the thought of having an extra hour in the day, kind of, to myself. I took my scrapbook down with me. What a ludicrous idea. Have you ever tried to do a scrapbook on the sofa with a crawling and curious 8-month baby in the room? It's impossible. Isaac busied himself grabbing at the spiral binding as I tried to stick things in and showed more curiosity than should be humanly possible at the pen I was holding to write little notes here and there. Sigh. I should have known. You can only do things like that in the hours when your children are asleep. So for me, that's after 8.30pm or possibly 9pm or before 6am - and that's a time of day I'm not interested in seeing anymore, thank you very much. Perhaps my scrapbook days are over. 

Gracie's phrase/s for the day:

'Mummy, that window looks a bit dusty. I think you need to do it Mummy.'

'Mummy, that's my centrepiece.' (??!)