Birthday weekend

I can't believe that Sofia has been in our lives for 2 years already. This will be a birthday weekend for our special gal. Tonight, we began the celebrations with eating some yummy chocolate cupcakes while watching Toy Story 3 (Buzz is her fav). =)

Sofia is at such a precious stage in her life; learning to be independent, discovering how to interact with those around her and communicating what she wants verbally.

I understand why they call it the terrible twos stage. It is a difficult time for them as they try to understand why what they are trying to communicate isn't being listened to. As parents, we try to figure out what they are asking for (which is not easy) and when we do figure it out, it might not be possible or appropriate for us to follow through. Not to mention when they want it now, they want it NOW! She is definitely acting out more often these days which makes her a terror to be around sometimes especially when you are fighting flames from one child to another.

TTs incl: slithering on the floor when refusing to do something or unhappy about something; flinging her arms and body, bursting out in full on crying/tears (there are times, i'm not even sure why she's crying). The last one is the most difficult to handle as she is in that zone, it is hard for us to distract her or even to reason with her.

TT Solutions that have worked: ask her to hold her hands together (action for patience) and count to 10 - the whole process diverts her attention so we have time to get what she's ask for; quiet time, ask her calmly to stand somewhere by herself to calm down and when she has taken a moment, she can leave that spot (similar to time outs but the idea is not to punish her, it's to help her calm down)

New developments:

-continual verbal developments and being able to mimic our words is helping her learn new words
-count things; say numbers 1-10 in chinese
-can say two nouns together but no verbs (ie. grandpa likes to draw a watch on her wrist so she can say, 'ye ye bui bui' (grandpa watch)
-Nolan is 'baby no no'
-if you ask her what color it is, she will answer 'red'

Sofia is in this really silly stage. Everything is a game to her. Sometimes I have to catch myself and have more patience for her because she is just enjoying life as a two year old.

I can't think of anything else and i'm tired! Too bad we will most likely have to cancel tomorrow's party but we will have a good day celebrating with our little 'mui mui' and I look forward to our birthday playdate at Munch.

Happy Birthday Sofia Chin!