Saturday, April 25, 2009

The Adventures of Amor Chiquito

Amor Chiquito has been quite impish this week! I am enjoying watching her figure out so many new things. I am loving everything about this stage, except the tantrums! Yes, tantrums are here, and, I know they are here to stay! Welcome, terrible two's!

New words: no and mano (Spanish for hand).

You ask her something, anything, it's always "no"! You ask someone else something, she answers for the person, "no"!

I got her a picnic table yesterday. Today, she had a snack on our porch at her new table, spent some time walking around the house, ran back and forth from the swing to our car, trying to put the key in so she could unlock the door, and spent a fair bit of time on the swing, of course!

Amor Chiquito is enjoying the slide Abuela got her. She was confused at first, but quickly learned how to get on it. She wants to go down the slide butt first every now and then!

She is enjoying her swing a great deal. It's her favorite thing to do, for the time being.

Speaking of the swing, last Tuesday she threw her first tantrum because she wanted to go outside and go on the swing. I said no because it was cold and rainy. She either did not understand that or did not care. The Geeky Entrepreneur figured he'd try to turn it into a learning experience. He thought if she sat on the wet swing, she'd get it. Well, guess what? That didn't work! She didn't give a crap! I'm guessing she is too little to understand that. She enjoyed being on the swing and proceeded to throw yet another tantrum when The Geeky Entrepreneur brought her in the house. To be honest, even though we had read "Love and Logic," a book on discipline, how to raise respectful and responsible kids, etc., I was not prepared for this! I guess it's time to do some thinking and decide how we will be handling tantrums! Suggestions are welcomed! It makes sense that tantrums have begun. The terrible two's are approaching.

So, back to the tantrum! I explained why we had to come in, tried distracting her, giving her space to figure it out, ignoring her, you name it… I got kicked. I got slapped. Even the boobies got hit, despite the fact that she can't live without them! Eventually, she decided she wanted mama milk. Then, the tantrum was over, she took a bath, and life was great again. My sweet baby was back!

Since then, we have had a handful of smaller tantrums, all because of the swing, because of keys, or because she does not want us to change her diaper.

Amor Chiquito and her 2-year-old cousin got to spend some time together last weekend. I noticed that neither of them was interesting in sharing anything. At one point, my nephew was about to sit where Amor Chiquito had been sitting. She got mad and made sure he wouldn't eat her food or have any of her water. Sounds terrible, I know! I know it's a kid thing, but I felt like there must be something I can do to teach her about sharing. A few days later, I got the weekly child development newsletter from Baystate Medical Center, where I gave birth. Apparently, children do not really understand sharing until they are three or so. That made me feel better. But, that means the next year will be very interesting for Amor Chiquito and her cousin! Well, they won't care; it will be interesting for those of us watching!

On to cute stuff! Amor Chiquito gives us lots of unsolicited hugs! Often, she'll start running towards you with her arms wide open! She just learned to blow kisses, so we get kisses too!

She continues to get better at spoon feeding herself. In fact, she won't let anyone feed her these days! I am waiting for the day when she will say, "I can do it myself"!

Amor Chiquito just learned to put her shoes on! She had been trying, but they were often backwards, as in she tried to put her toes in the heel part. One day, I noticed she had both shoes on, no socks on. I didn't do it and Daddy was working.

For a while, she was enjoying dressing herself, especially if it was new clothes that she got to remove stickers off of. Now, sometimes, she just does not want to get dressed! Today, suddenly, I realized she was in her diaper, shirt and pants were gone! Then, five minutes later, the diaper was gone too! Maybe she wanted to take a bath?!

Oh, how could I forget…? Quick sleep update: most nights, she has slept 6-8 hours uninterrupted. So, we end up getting up only once in the middle of the night. We are still dealing with her having a hard time going back to sleep on some nights. Overall, I am very pleased with the progress she has made during the last week or so.

I think that is it for this week.

I have not forgotten about cloth diapers. I will post more about that when I get through the end of the semester insanity.

1 comment:

  1. Love and Logic is wonderful. Sometimes at this age they still don't get it though, so when tantrums occur, you just have to muddle through and continue what you were doing despite the tantrum. I do try to make him feel better and I explain why he isn't getting what he wants, but I do what I was going to do anyway. This way he gets that the tantrum isn't going to change the outcome of something.

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