Mia and Singing

Mia is getting better and better at singing. Yesterday she sang Happy Birthday to me quite a few times. Usually she stops when I turn on the camera, but she was happily eating last night and started to sing so I was able to catch her on film or digital.

Mia seemed to understand that it was my birthday though she would sometimes sing the song to herself or papa as well. Mia also spilled the beans as to what she "bought" me. I asked her what she got Mama and she said she bought a pillow. It really was a pillow, a body pillow. I also got a case for our camera from Papa. THANKS!

Here she is at Sushi O Sushi where we celebrated last night. She shoveled in a ton of tofu, rice and some chicken katsu.

Apple Does not Fall Far...

I am going to begin an ongoing series about how Mia is very much like her dear Papa. They have the same outgoing personality and loud voice.

Here are two recent examples of how nature is often stronger than nurture.

We were outside the Sunnyvale Public Library where there is a really neat statue of a man eating his lunch while reading. Mia has always been fascinated by the statue, but on this day she decided to pick his nose. Now if she had asked me for a tissue or Q-tip (we Q-tip her nostrils after bathing her) I'd say that nurture is stronger than nature in this case, but no, she went right up to the poor man and stuck her finger up his nose.


Next is a video of Mia enjoying bacon, a newfound treat for Mia. Her Papa loves Bacon with a passion.

Sticker for Mama

Yesterday I went to pee as I am accustomed to doing after getting out of bed. Mia was with me since she had gotten up thirty minutes earlier. Upon seeing me pee on the potty, she ran to her room and came back with a sticker which she put on the wall of our bathroom (this was a feat as she had to run down the hall and get up to her sink counter and find the stickers hidden behind a picture frame). Mia returned and said, "Sticker for Mama pee pee on potty". You see we've been trying to encourage using the toilet and Sesame Street stickers are the big incentive. I got a HUGE laugh out of it. Now if only she would actually pee into the toilet... We're going to get down and dirty in a month or two by rolling up the rug and putting her in big girl pants! Time to buy some Sesame Street undies for the girl.

I Created a Monster!

"No, different one!" (a general phrase used when Mia wants a different shirt, pants, socks, spoon, bowl, etc.)

"No, yi chi cereal" (translation: I don't want the cereal mixed together)

"No, he ma cup" (translation: I want the hippo cup)

"No, change diaper, later!" (she says while running away from me)

My little girl is turning into a major diva. Not sure that I can handle these constant changing demands and defiance with my fuse getting shorter and shorter each day. While it is nice to see that Mia is growing into her own person with her own ideas and preferences, it is also hard to give up the "control" I once had over her.

The girl wants to eat a little bit of three different cereals for breakfast and none of it can be in the same bowl. Because she was a picky eater, we gave her a variety of choices early on, but now I fear she's grown up with too many choices, so I need to put the kabash on her expectation that she can get anything she wants whenever she wants. Starting tomorrow morning, it's one cereal and that's that.

How is it that our best intentions as parents often go awry on us? How is it that instead of listening to me, I'm listening to her? Of course, we need to validate and listen to a child's feelings, but there is a limit and children need to be taught that they cannot always get their way, though at times it does seem to be the path of least resistance (read, whining and embarrassing public tantrums). Praying that I am not raising one of those girls seen on My Super Sweet Sixteen. Lord help me be strong!