My daughter is strong minded, determined, wilful and spirited. At the adorable age of 17months she clearly know her own mind and nothing is going to stop her from getting her own way.

She’s little miss independent that will snatch her shoes from me to put them on herself, turn her back to me to fasten her coat herself and woe betide me should I try carry her anywhere or lift her into the car because she can do it herself!

It’s hilarious and hard work all at the same time. I love her energy, her determination and strength. She’s such a strong character with enough energy for the whole of her play group! I love laughing at her nature, she’s fun loving, sociable and really bloody clever! She watches you do something once, copies and nails it straight away. She quietly takes things in, absorbing it like a sponge and then takes you surprise by doing or saying it herself. She amazes me everyday.

But she wears me out! She tries my patience with her boldness, her bolshy attitude. As much as her sass is hilarious it’s tedious too. She wants to have control and is testing and pushing the boundaries at the moment and I’ve to stay strong and show her right from wrong, nurturing her curiosity and strength whilst teaching her right from wrong or at least stopping her from climbing on the sofa or emptying the laundry basket! I have to guide her encourage her to behave positively, teaching her and leading her and if you’ve ever attempted to reason with a toddler then you’ll realise this isn’t an easy task.

Don’t get me wrong I knew parenting wasn’t going to be easy and that I’d be faced with the challenge of temper tantrums and determined screeches the minute I had a girl. But I underestimated how draining it would be whilst simultaneously being the funniest and warmest experience. She really does crack me up with her funny nuances and quirky ways, as much as she saps all the energy from me and grinds me down, her strong character and wilful nature also make me so proud and fill me with joy. There’s never a dull moment as she’s learning to be funny and cheeky, play games and tricks of hide and seek and tickling! However she also wants be older and able to do more than she can just yet and gets very worked up when she can’t articulate exactly what she wants or have things happen in a certain way.

It’s like she can flick a switch and go from being frustratingly annoying into being the cutest thing in the world. Almost puss in boots from Shrek style she makes you go weak at the knees. Tonight for instance we had a melt down over blueberries, yes that’s right blueberries! We ran out, she had the last of them and happily saw me put the last of the punnet in her snack bowl and throw the packaging away as she sang,” all gone” repeatedly. Then despite knowing they were “all gone” I proceeded to witness her crying at the fridge door, dragging me to it and banging on it as of it were to magically produce some “more brriiiieeesss” Truth was it was almost bath and bedtime and she didn’t really want more she just couldn’t cope with let down as she was overly tired. So I proceeded with her bedtime routine which had to be deviated from slightly as she flitted between giggles and calm to crying and frustration. The usual art of distraction wasn’t working its usual magic and little miss P was ensuring I remembered that she wasn’t happy and wanted those “brriiieeesss” so much upset over blueberries! I managed to calm her and we snuggled up with a bedtime story her saying “nigh nigh” to every object in the room, “nigh nigh woof” etc and then she happily drifted off to sleep.

I often do this and pause for a minute, watching her sleep. Her long dark eyelashes resting so perfectly on her cheeks, her little face looking so calm and angelic. When asleep as those eyelashes rest on her cheeks she reverts back to being a lot younger, her resting face reminds me of the early months and her neediness. I usually melt into a pool of mummy love as I watch her gently breathing and everything just seems right with the world. I hasten to add that these sweet picture perfect moments are followed by her morning wake up call of bellowing “mummy come” at 6am but it’s all par the course of raising a bonkers child who loves “be sssssssssilly”

All the challenges of raising an hilariously funny, spirited little girl with a crazy personality fade into the background as I watch her eyelashes rest on her cheeks, because as tiring as it is, it’s worth every minute.