We are really enjoying Elora. She is older and easier now, having been our most demanding child to date. I wouldn’t call her difficult – none of our children have been ‘difficult’ – but she certainly has a very strong personality.

Little Elora, 15 hours old

From the day she came home from hospital she was a real chatterbox. She would be on her play mat and we would all be having dinner at the table. She would call out and yell, not cry, just call out to get our attention and be part of the action – at two days old! In hospital, as I lay awake watching her just hours after she had been born, she would turn her head and make those adorable newborn squeaking noises when she heard other babies crying.

So now she is 26 months old and we have really interesting conversations with her.

They often go like this:

‘Mummy,’ says Elora.
‘Yes, darling,’ I say.
‘Mummy.’
‘Yes bubba.’
‘Mummy.’
‘Yes,’
‘Mummy.’
‘Yes darling.’
‘Mummy’
(Taking deep breaths) ‘Yes my love’
‘Mummy’
‘Yes darling’
‘It’s my sock’ (hands sock to me).

This conversation has several forms. It is always the repetitive mummy mummy mummy that goes on for what seems like for ever. Perhaps she is just thinking of what to say. Perhaps she loves me so much she just loves saying my name. Perhaps she is trying to be funny. Either way, it goes on and on like this, ending with some seemingly random statement or request, like ‘I thirsty I need juice.’

She has taken to resting her chin in her hands, with her elbows resting on the kitchen bench. She sits this way at the end of the day and asks for food for dinner. ‘I hungry I need my beans’ and ‘I want toast.’ She sits this way and becomes my running commentary as I run around the kitchen doing things. It is very entertaining for us both, these silly little conversations that we have.

She knows what she wants. She can be very demanding. I must confess that we give in to her too easily. If she starts having a tantrum because she wants milk instead of water, we are likely to give in. Sometimes I think that it is a bad idea to give in to her tantrums because it reinforces her undesirable behaviour. Then I start to wonder, maybe I am the one being unreasonable – the girl wants milk, not water; it is a healthy option and she needs her calcium and she likes the taste and she drinks water anyway so does it really matter? And the way she says thank you, once she receives what she wants, like a really surprised and overly grateful ‘oh thank you,’ is just awesome. So sweet!

I often have to wrestle with her to get her to say please. She just looks at me, really cheekily, and doesn’t say please. She thinks she is funny, until she doesn’t get her fruit or nuts or drink or whatever until she says please! She says ‘oh thank you’ all the time. It’s the please that she has issues with. We shall persevere!

Sometimes I just think, ‘can’t you be reasonable?’ And I have to remind myself that one of the essences of toddlerhood is that they cannot really reason. Their Id is still so prevalent and their Ego is emerging – they are the centre of the universe and there, in the centre with her, I am there to cater for all her needs.