Welcome, 20 Months, with Attitude!

Well, I knew the easy-party couldn't last forever...

 

My funny Tay turned 20 months old and along with growing inches, she has also grown an attitude.  She very defiantly yells, "NO!" when we do something she doesn't want or she can't do something she wants.  She also has started taking possession of things she knows are not hers, yet she'll clutch them to her chest and yell, "MINE!" as she stamps her little feet.  Who knew the "terrible twos" would start at 20 months instead of actually 24 months!  The day she turned 20 months was when she had her first major meltdown because she wanted to spit out water from a cup and I wouldn't let her.  Her arms and legs were flailing and she arched her back and screamed and yelled as if I had taken away her favorite toy when I took away her sippy cup.  Well, I couldn't help but chuckle a little because I had never seen her get quite so worked up, but I was pretty irritated, too, because I was left with the mess of cleaning up this water she had spit on the living room floor.  Anyhow, I just got a rag and started cleaning it up after she calmed down a bit (I just held her, flailing and all...just worried a bit that I might drop her with all the arching), and she watched me wipe up a bit, and then came over to me and took a swat at my face and said, "no!"  I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!  I swear my blood pressure shot up at that instant, but I took a deep breath, grabbed her hand, and said sternly, "No hitting."  At which point, she swatted at me with the other hand.  ::sigh::  I had read so many articles that said children her age will resort to hitting to see what sort of response they will get or just simply because they don't know how to let out their frustration / anger.  So...I took another deep breath and walked away.  I've decided ignoring is going to be my first tactic or approach.  Jeff and I still have to have the "discipline" talk...so that we're both presenting a unified front against this new "attitude" Tay has developed. 

 

In other news, Tay still has her very sweet moments like tonight at choir practice, I was holding her as we were singing a song and she sang along with her pretty little voice, all the while smiling at the other choir members.  Then, she decided to go check out one of the guitar players, who let her sit on his knee and play the guitar along with him, so she sat there patiently through an entire song, just singing along and occasionally strumming.  Also, after her bath tonight as I was lying next to her to put her to sleep, I was humming a song and she rolled over, hugged my arm, said, "po-po" (which means, "kiss" in Korean), and then kissed my arm a half a dozen times...:)  It's just not possible to be upset with this child...even if I do get upset, it's so fleeting that I forget it when I blink.

 

Last weekend, our family participated in the 10K Walk for Hope for Breast Cancer Awareness on the Han River.  It didn't start out so well because Tay fell face-first on some leaves and got scratched up, but as the walk went on, we made great strides and finished the walk in less than two hours!  We were pretty happy about that!  It was the first of its kind for the military community here in Korea.  We had pink balloons and many of us wore pink (although I couldn't convince Jeff to wear any pink that morning).  Pictures coming soon...as soon as I find our camera.

 

Tay and I also got our H1N1 flu shots today.  That was a rather unpleasant experience for Tay because they didn't have any baby-sized needles, but she took it like a champ, cried a bit, but she was smiling on the way out, so it must have not been too traumatic for her.  Thank goodness. 

 

There's so much more to say about this climbing-falling-growing-giggling-big-little girl...just wish I could just capture it all in time...and keep it with me forever.

 

Love,

Rosa