Whoa - a Glimpse of the Terrible Twos?

Last night, my colleague Norm invited us to dinner. He lives right by downtown, so we decided to take Carolyn to see the christmas lights on Temple Square before we went to dinner. She got out of the car and excitedly started saying "Neigh - Neigh" while pointing to the horses and carriages lined up on the street. When we got onto the grounds of temple square, she started running around and pointing to the lights, saying "lights" and "pretty."

It was a fun family moment.....

...... until Carolyn decided she wanted to jump into the fountain.

Obviously, as good parents, we did not let her play or jump in the water (it was below freezing). But, she just kept pouting "watty-watty" - her word for water - and would try to escape from us and run back to the fountains as soon as we walked away. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of fountains on temple square, so it only got worse. She eventually broke down into a full-out scream and at one moment, even laid completely on the ground flailing her arms and legs. She was inconsolable. It was embarassing. And, Steve and I could hardly help ourselves from laughing at her spectacle. We quickly found a gate and took her onto the sidewalk, just so she would not encounter any more "watty" and so we would not have to endure the incredulous looks we got from other parents with well behaved children.

Once she calmed down and forgot about the "watty," we entered another gate and decided to show her the rest of the lights. It was going well. At the nativity scene, there was a very realistic looking flock of sheep. She was excited and started saying "baa-baa" and was cutely pointing to the animals she so proudly knew .... and then she tried to jump the ropes to go see the "baa-baa" up close and personal. And, you guessed it, madam crazy revved up her engines again. So, we scooped her up, quickly exited the gardens, and found our car. Yes, we got the hell out of there with our crazed child! As we reached our car, both Steve and I were still laughing under our breath. We agreed that this was a well-intentioned, but unsuccessfully-executed attempt at family fun.

Whoa!

This girl has a strong will.

How much worse will it get in the "Terrible Twos"?

God help us.