Typical two-year old

If I doubted that the Chinese Noodle was a full blown two-year old, this week certainly set me straight. Tuesday night J had Vestry at church. The Noodle and I had had a fun night playing. She was cooperative about taking a bath, brushing teeth, putting jammies on (and then promptly taking them off again), etc., etc. Basically it had been a good night. We sat on the potty (more on that in a minute) and had a fresh diaper. All was good in the world. I put her down and she was quiet for a few minutes and then it started. "MaMaaaaa! MaMaaaa!" Now as an aside, she's been doing this quite a lot. She'll call for me, I'll go up and then she'll start laughing because she wants the interaction. After the 3rd or 4th time, I told her no more. That's when the temper tantrum started and the shrieking at the top of her lungs began and both lasted for an hour and a half. I kid you not. Did I also mention that it was warm that night and that of course, the windows were open? Yeah. So...about 9:00 J comes home and of course hears all the carrying on. He goes up and she is screaming "Nooooo DaDa!!! MaMaaaaa". This went on until
9:30, when all suddenly went quiet. Sheer exhaustion.

Now I know there is a lot of press out there about making sure you're meeting your (adopted) child's needs and that they need to know you're there for them, but in this case, it was pure, two-year old behavior. Bad, bad, bad behavior at that. She knows that when she needs us and calls for us, we're there. When she woke in the morning, it was all smiles. Humph.

The Noodle has also been very interested in the potty lately. She'll sit on it before and after bath and will ask to sit on it periodically throughout the day. I brought down the little potty for downstairs (our bathroom is upstairs), but currently it has only been used to hold Memory cards, store her play camera or as a perch for her doll. The other morning she got into our linen closet and got out the extra rolls of T.P. Unwinding them is sooo much fun, don't ya think? She's also really into "helping" me when I'm changing her diaper. I definitely see some potty training in the not so distant future...


Lastly, the C.N. has adopted some favorite catch phrases. One that we hear at least a million times a day is "I do!!!!!!!" As in, no I want to do it, no let me, no I can handle it. It is usually accompanied by a snatch or grab of something. The other favorite saying around our house lately is "No ____(fill in person's name), my ____(object i.e. food, drink, bow, stuffed animal, doll, book, etc.) This is done in conjunction with a finger wag. She will also say "No no no" while wagging her finger. In our defense, she did do the whole finger wag thing the first few days we were in China, so I think she must have seen the nannies do it at the orphanage... hopefully I don't do it that much?!?!

So what's your opinion? Does this sound like a two-year old to you?