My 18-month-old has a new favorite food (if you can call it that):  Pop Tarts.  Don't ask me what possessed me to feed one to an already picky eater.  I think I did it out of desperation one morning when I was out of pancakes and she wouldn't touch a bowl of cereal.  So tonight she kept yelling at me and pointing at the cabinet where they were kept.  I had two problems with this:  1) Pop Tarts are not an acceptable dinner, even on designated 'Breakfast for Dinner' nights.  2) She had already consumed the contents of the box and I do not (as a rule) keep back-ups on hand.  I kept telling her I was out of them, and she kept looking at me like: "Que?"  Finally I just had to pick her up so she could see the decidedly un-Tarty contents of my cabinets.  After surveying the contents of said cabinet and apparently satisfied that I had been telling the truth, she gave her opinion of the other options: "No."
    She also has a new favorite game.  She loves to play Hide and Seek.  Sometimes she doesn't even tell me she wants to play.  I just notice it is entirely too quiet, so I go look in her favorite hiding place:  her bedroom closet.  When she realizes she's been discovered, she giggles and flails until she yanks most of her clothes off the hangers.  This is both endlessly adorable and infinitely frustrating because it means I have to iron again.  I hate to iron.  I hate anything I'm not very good at.  I like it better when we know she's playing.  Then she likes to take a turn counting (which saves me from having to rehang little cardigan sweaters).
    So I'm having a lot of fun watching her personality blossom.  Other people are starting to comment on what a little firecracker she is-- something I knew from the first moment I saw her.  Everyone used to say that she was my peaceful, agreeable child.  I thought they were all nuts.  My four-year-old has always been more extroverted, but she's a people-pleaser for the most part.  The younger one is a bit introverted, but there is a wild side bubbling just below the surface.  It's starting to come into view more often.  She doesn't like large groups, and she doesn't like to be told what to do.  Boy, am I in for it...

CL