November 6, 2009

30 Months ⁵

by Wendy • Catherine Ellen Mei, featured, Headline, My Minds Eye/Photography

Our dear, sweet, smiley daughter turned 30 months old yesterday.  She’s 2 1/2 and very much the typical toddler.  She is 35 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds, although I swear she weighs more than that!  Here are some of the things she is doing:

• She is obsessed with Chinese lion/dragons and pretends that she is one by beating on a drum.  My parents entertain her on Skype by dangling a Chinese dragon that they bought in Chinatown.
• There are three girls from her pre-preschool class that she loves to ‘talk’ about.  She even knows who their mothers are when we see them in the parking lot (sans child).  She is incredibly smart with remembering names and faces.  I know this will come in handy some day.
• She knows me and John’s real names.  And sometimes she will call us by that.
• She can count to 10 by herself and almost to 20 if we help her a little.
• She knows most of the words to several favorite childhood nursery songs.  Her favorite is ‘Baa baa black sleep’  and no, that’s not a typo.  That’s how she says it.
• She sings the ABC’s.
• She is starting to venture out and play with other kids when we are in a group setting (which makes me very, very happy).
• But she still has her clingy moments.
• She can be very bossy.  And her defiance can be breathtaking at times.
• Her tantrums have eased quite a bit but sometimes if she doesn’t get her way or if she gets frustrated she starts to cry.  I would rather her cry than throw a fit.
• She still has serious sibling rivalry issues with Chief, Shadow, and Deuce.
• She can play with tupperware and plastic bottles with caps in the bathtub for hours.
• She no longer has an interest in her baby dolls but she seems to like puzzles and blocks more now.
• She now thinks it’s okay to write with her crayons on anything other than paper.
• She wants to go to school and by Friday she is asking to go (she goes on Monday & Wednesday).
• Her favorite books are the Biscuit the dog series.
• She drags books up to us and says, ‘Read to me!’
• She has some books memorized.  Her memory astounds me sometimes.
• She has a funny sense of humor which is starting to really emerge.
• She covers her ears anytime a plane or helicopter goes over.  The Blue Angels were here over the weekend and they were super loud.  So now, even if she hears the faint buzz of a plane going by she covers her ears.
• When she sees someone she knows and likes, she will run up to them with one arm in the air.  It’s funny to watch!
• When one of us comes home, she will run up to the door and squeal like our dog Shadow does.
• If we hurt ourselves or make a funny noise, she will say, ‘Are you okay?’ or ‘What happened?’ with a look of concern.  She will then kiss the ‘owie’  and say, ‘Mommy feels much better now.’
• She now runs all over the house screaming our names non-stop.  I have to tell her stop sometimes because it drives me a bit crazy.  It’s ironic to say that because when we were waiting for her, I couldn’t wait to hear those words and now, well…sometimes I have to tell her to stop using my name in vain.  )
• If I’m in the bathroom and have the door closed, she will stick her face to the ground and say, ‘I see your toes!’ and then proceeds to stick her hands or toes under the door.
• When we put her to bed, she says ‘Ni Hao, Zia Gian, Night Night’ like it’s one long salutation.
• Her favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, soup, Nutella sandwiches, shrimp, and corn.  Anything other than that and we have to bribe her to eat with jello and popsicles.   Or we have to say, ‘Baby dragons love to eat baby carrots!’  Although that doesn’t always work.
• The Love and Logic discipline strategies don’t work quite yet but 1-2-3 Magic does!
• When she gets bored, for instance at a restaurant, or if she is in time out, she will say that she has to go to the potty even though she really doesn’t.  It about drives me nuts.  We are starting to catch on and will take her once but after that we tell her she has to wait.  If she is in time-out she doesn’t get to go until her time-out is over and by that time she has decided she doesn’t need to go after all.
• She can sit and watch you-Tube videos of dragon dancers or of her new baby cousin for hours if we let her.
• Since we don’t let her watch Yo-Gabba Gabba any longer (she got waaaaaaaaaaay to obsessed with it), her new favorite show is the Wonder Pets.  She can even sing the song for you.

I was looking at her tonight as I was singing her her nighttime songs and I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that her birth parents are missing out on such a brilliant, funny, personable child.  I wish there was some way that I could just tell them all about her.  I hope that one day we can.

At 2 1/2, she never ceases to amaze me.  She also wears me out pretty quickly but she her smiles and spontaneous hugs make up for all of the craziness.  We just love her and now we are pretty sure that she loves us.  It’s a good feeling.