It’s official: Susan Louise Johnson, age 2 years 4 months, suffers from middle child syndrome. And, with her newly exploded linguistic ability, she is also extremely vulnerable to teasing (mostly from her parents, who think she’s hilarious). Susan feels very defensive about her identity, responding to every question (Are you happy/hungry/poopy/full of beans?) with “I’m not happy/hungry/poopy/full of beans, I’m Caddies.” And she refuses to call me “mommy dearest,” opting instead for “little missy” or “Jane.”
Lately she’s been telling me to put Spot on floor or in the bumbo chair (incidentally, Spot’s new nickname is Bumbo Princess, although I have to say I don’t like the bumbo chair–good thing we just borrowed one instead of forking over all that dough–because it exacerbates the urp factor) because she wants to be on my lap. On Sunday at church I was having a *little* difficulty with the three darlings and Sister Meadows offered to hold Spot. Susan got really upset and kept saying (screaming) “Give back Spot Goosey.”
Whenever I do lose my temper (very rarely, of course), Susan looks at me long-sufferingly and tries to placate me with “okay, mommy, okay.” Or to my frustrated directives, “yes, yes.”
Susan even tried a form of self-mutilation in her middle-child bid for attention. She has been in the habit of staying up after we have all gone to bed (thanks to the 3+ hour afternoon nap; Sally did the same thing at this age) and playing with toys in her and Sally’s bedroom. She also loves putting hair bands around her wrists as bracelets. A few weeks ago she chose a particularly small rubber band and woke up the next morning crying. I had flashbacks of the gluttonous guy on Seven (not that I ever watched that movie back in my rebellious BYU days). It took 48 hours for the swelling to recede completely.
Susan is now isolated in her own room in the crib at bedtime. She usually tells us she wants Sally at bedtime, but settles for Maggie and Ribbit.
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