2 Year Old Paradox

So the wonderful thing about two year olds is that they are excellent at doing exactly what you don't want them to do or not doing what you want them to do. I call this the two year old paradox. 

Example A:  Summer had an appointment with an ophthalmologist today and refused to do anything he asked her to do. We go back for a re-check in 6-8 months with the hope that she will cooperate a little better. 

Example B: I take Summer to a music class once a week that my sister-in-law does.  Often,  she refuses to participate and won't sing. However,  when she is at home and is supposed to sleeping, we often hear those very same songs she refuses to sing in class. 

This 2 year old phenomenon seems to be greatly enhanced when a camera is pulled out.  If she's doing something cute, she stops the moment I pull it out. If I want her to hold still,  she starts doing something crazy. For example: 

Exhibit A: I got Ellen and Summer matching dresses for Easter-and who doesn't love matching dresses on little girls? Summer was quite excited to have the same dress as Ellen until I wanted to take a picture, and then this (see photos below) happened. Summer won't let Ellen touch her, get close to her, and frankly, she often doesn't like to be in the same picture as her. Notice the progression of pictures (this is the order they were taken in-with several not shown) from tears, to slight cooperation, to grief, a brief smile because Ellen was no longer near her dress, and then finally to just Ellen. Sweet Ellen happily cooperated the entire time. 

Exhibit B: Since the first photo shoot didn't work out, I decided to try again.  This time we headed to Thanksgiving Point (yay for our pass!) to try out a different approach. As you will see below, we got a couple of good ones, but they were acquired with much bribing of ice cream, many tears, and the convincing of Summer that Ellen was not going to steal her blanket and that being next to Ellen would be ok. My goal was to obtain a decent picture of the two of them together-and we succeeded! I love the first picture below! My two year old did not totally thwart my plans (although I would have loved for Summer to hold Ellen in a picture, but we all know how far from an option that was) and once again, Ellen was a perfect model for it all.