27 Months and Growing Strong!

Watching your child grow and seeing yourself in her has to be one of the most beautiful and terrifying things a person can experience. As Cecilia takes on toddlerhood full force, her individuality is getting bolder and her will, of course, is getting stronger. I relish in watching her person form and seeing her brain making those connections as to what works in this world that is still so new to her. Patterns and schedules that she’s always followed – are out the window, gone are the days of easily distracting her from things…this girl knows what she wants (don’t get me wrong - I think this is a blessing and I hope she grows continues to grow into as strong of a woman as the little, girl I see now). But she also wants so much to be like the people she loves. She mimics almost everything she sees and repeats everything as if she is just filing it away for later use.

Cecilia has turned into quite the little mommy. She takes care of her babies and stuffed animals all the time. She is constantly busy rocking, feeding, tucking them in, potty training them, dressing them and she is ALWAYS changing those diapers! I saw her put a diaper on a doll last night perfectly – I don’t think I could have done it any better. She tells everyone to be quiet when her babies are sleeping and when they cry (which is quite often) she bounces them and says “sh-sh-sh-sh” and pats them on the bottom.  The other night a bear of hers was being particularly naughty and kept being put in time out…she would tell it very sternly, “you sit there, time out” – and as soon as she would turn around that ornery bear would get up and she would turn around and, “No bear! Sit. You don’t get up!” and place him firmly on the seat. After a few times of this, she grew frustrated and as she walked away from him again she put her hands on her face and shook her head and sighed, “oh my dosh (gosh).” Whoops…I had no idea I had ever done that before- sometimes looking in a mirror is a little embarrassing! I will never get tired of watching her play mommy.   

Her dance class is interesting. She talks about her teacher, “Maggie”, all the time – but when she gets to class she doesn’t listen to Maggie very well. She usually participates in at least half of the class pretty well, but the other half she will just stare at the teacher or simply tell her, ”no, I not doing that”. She is much more interested in showing off her painted toenails or her tutu, etc. It completely cracks me up…because I can tell she is a million miles away from that class room half the time and when I see that daydreaming look…I know she is her mother’s daughter, for sure! She has really struggled to go into the class by herself – she wants me to come with her and on occasion will want to stop dancing and sit on my lap. I really haven’t pushed her or made a big deal of it, because I don’t want to stress her out. But, I told Ryan that I thought she might do better if I wasn’t there, if he just took her by himself. So, the next week I stayed home (which killed me) and sure enough…she only hesitated for a moment and then went right in and danced the whole class. Yes, I realize this is proof that I baby her and that she knows it…I really had no idea what a softy being a Mom would turn me into.

She loves her cousins and friends…LOTS! She is a very social creature and talks about the people she loves all the time. If we tell her she is going to play with someone tomorrow – she doesn’t forget it! A few weeks ago we had eaten dinner at the Kaneko’s house, on the way home she sobbed and sobbed, saying, “I want Tai (Kai), Ceci want Tai.” It melts my heart to see how much she loves people and it especially melts my heart that we have so many people in our lives who love her so much! It is a very humbling thing to see other people love your child. I hope Cecilia grows up knowing how blessed she is to have so much love.