My daughter amazes me every day. Sweet Pea says complete sentences like: I'm sitting down; I want some milk; Dada eat that. She sings songs, "reads" books, and rocks her babies to sleep. She has strong opinions: "turn it off, Mama" "I need that!" but still says thank you and please most of the time, which makes me so proud. She tells us she's "going running" then takes off down the hall, and spills things and then says "oops, I dropped it!"
The rough times lately, that feel like we are entering the 'terrible twos,' are the occasional ten minutes of crying over something as small as not getting a second squirt of toothpaste on her toothbrush, or having a pen taken away that she was about to use to draw on the wall. Most of the time we can avoid this kind of total emotional over-reaction by offering a trade, explaining an alternative, distracting, or making it a game, but sometimes she is just too focused on the thing that she wants. And sometimes I am just too busy, distracted, or frustrated to provide those alternatives and we all suffer for it.
The last few weeks her number one activity is to play mommy with her dolls, known as her babies around here. She has two that are her favorites right now and she likes to take them everywhere with her. She wraps them a blanket, puts them to bed, changes diapers, shushes and kisses, and puts them in a car seat many times a day. It is so sweet to see her replicate the things we have done with her a thousand times and see how she interprets the actions. My favorites is when she rocks them in her arms and shushes because it is just so gentle and adorable. Just now she asked to me to give one a nap on my lap and wanted to put the other one on her back. I helped her use a blanket to tie the baby onto her. She is now bustling around the house doing "chores" and looking over her shoulder at the baby doll. Sweet Pea no longer wears diapers herself, but she likes to put her baby dolls in diapers still. Such a good little mama!
The rough times lately, that feel like we are entering the 'terrible twos,' are the occasional ten minutes of crying over something as small as not getting a second squirt of toothpaste on her toothbrush, or having a pen taken away that she was about to use to draw on the wall. Most of the time we can avoid this kind of total emotional over-reaction by offering a trade, explaining an alternative, distracting, or making it a game, but sometimes she is just too focused on the thing that she wants. And sometimes I am just too busy, distracted, or frustrated to provide those alternatives and we all suffer for it.
The last few weeks her number one activity is to play mommy with her dolls, known as her babies around here. She has two that are her favorites right now and she likes to take them everywhere with her. She wraps them a blanket, puts them to bed, changes diapers, shushes and kisses, and puts them in a car seat many times a day. It is so sweet to see her replicate the things we have done with her a thousand times and see how she interprets the actions. My favorites is when she rocks them in her arms and shushes because it is just so gentle and adorable. Just now she asked to me to give one a nap on my lap and wanted to put the other one on her back. I helped her use a blanket to tie the baby onto her. She is now bustling around the house doing "chores" and looking over her shoulder at the baby doll. Sweet Pea no longer wears diapers herself, but she likes to put her baby dolls in diapers still. Such a good little mama!
It's hard to image that our sweet little girl could ever . . . well, now that I think about how my wife and I were, I suppose it's bound to happen to us too.
ReplyDeleteso sweet and cute! it's great to see how your nurturing parenting has rubbed off on her. i've learned a lot about the type of parent i want to be from watching you and average.
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