Baby Coole has recently learned the power of the word no. At twenty months now, her vocabulary is still very limited (very different from Big Sister Coole, who was spewing paragraphs at that age), but ‘no’ has quickly become her favourite word – so much so that even when she says ‘yes’, it still somehow manages to sound like a slurred and drawn-out no.

I fear we are entering the realm of Terrible Two-dom a little early. Although, in retrospect, Big Sister Coole’s Terrible Twos stage was definitely more in the 18-24 month range for her. But Big Sister was so precocious, it didn’t surprise me at all that she hit that stage early – she was ahead of the game with the rest of her milestones as well. Plus, there were sever extenuating circumstances at the time for her, as all our energy and attention were devoted to Daddy Coole whose health rapidly deteriorated and then culminated in his untimely death right after her 2nd birthday. So in my mind, her behavior was at the very least understandable.

Things are different now with Baby Coole – she’s my cute little baby and I sort of want to hold on to that baby stage as long as possible before letting her grow up. Even her rebellious attitude right now is somewhat amusing and I know I’m not nearly as strict with her as as I should be. I know that this stage, like all others, will pass, but until then, I’d like to just bury myself in the backyard for a few months. Or perhaps I’ll just have to learn to use the power of no myself.