Little Miss Perfect

I'm living with a perfectionist.

Jane likes to have things a certain way. Not I'm-a-two-year-old-and-I-want-it-my-way way (although that still lives in this house), but more of an I-need-my-hair-pinned-back-so-it-won't-get-in-my-cereal way.

And she tries so hard to get things perfect. Like counting. Or jumping like a frog.

I can hear some of you now. "It's your fault, Rachel. You've made her compulsive with your compulsive behavior." And I disagree. This is genetics here, folks. Pure genetics.

For example: At night I sing a certain song to her that my Mom sang to me. One of the phrases, that Jane sings with me, ends "of which I'm a part". In her 2-year-old way, I could hear her saying "of which I'm a park."

After several nights like this the Baby Center e-mail advice started to make me feel guilty and so I paused our song and gently reminded her that it was "part."

She looked at me a little bewildered and repeated "park."

So I asked her what "T" said. She responded with the appropriate sound and so I said "that's right, "t" and that's what's at the end of the word. ParT."

We finished our song and throughout the rest of our routine, I could hear her muttering "park, parkt, parkttt, park."

The next day, I could hear her at intervals repeating "parkt. Tttttt. Parkt."

A few nights later, I put her to bed again and when we got to the phrase, she uttered a triumphant "part."

"I did it, Momma! I did it. ParT! High five! Hug, hug. I did it," she told me.

I stopped and gave her the appropriate accolade (lots of love, hugs and high fives) and she was so proud of herself.

Now thanks to the reminder on the words "thank you" (ank you) and "mouth" (mouf) within a 3-minute time span, we are hearing the "th" sound all around the house.