21 month update

Today, June 3, 2015, Allison turns 21 months old. Her 20th month has been quite eventful. Here is how she's been doing:

Personality - 
Allison is quite the social butterfly. She has friends at school that like her (they say her name when they see her), friends at church that love her, and she can be quite friendly with her grandparents, aunts and cousins, from both sides, and our friends.

She's also very cheeky and quite the curious troublemaker. She loves to get into things, to hold/touch new things, curious about new people and environments, loves anything fun.

She's obsessed with bubbles and drawing on paper. She doesn't play with her toys much and would rather be near us more than anything. Even if she is watching her favorite program on TV but I leave the room, she will come follow me like a puppy :)

At 20 months came the start of the terrible 2s - opposing almost everything we ask or offer immediately by saying no.. it's her default answer without thinking, which I can catch her when I offer something I know she likes. she'll say no and then want it, the little bugger ;) I try to give her as much freedom as I can and also give her a majority of what she wants but when I say no, I have to stick with it. The best way to avoid meltdowns from being upset is to move on to the next topic or item or object in which I know she'll be ok with. This helps her foget about being upset. If she is still upset, that means she really did want that something so I usually have to give in just a little.

Favorite Activities -
reading, coloring, going to the library, park, playing with bubbles, watching TV

Favorite characters - 
Elmo, Daniel Tiger

Discipline
Now is when Tom and I truly have to exercise our parenting skills. Our human nature and upbringing naturally inclines us to be the boss of our child, to raise our voice and be stern. However, in situations where Allison does something wrong like hit us, and then we react that way, we find that reacting in such a manner is not helpful at all. She would then get really upset that we were upset and then the original offense just gets lost. In those situations, she will be stubborn about not saying sorry due to pride. So, Tom and I have to change our ways and go for the more calmer/teaching route where we have to tell her that what she did was wrong. She's learning to say sorry after I myself have apologized to her for doing something wrong to her. Even I learned from Daniel Tiger that first we say sorry, then we see how we can help to make things better. For example, she knocked her dinner on te floor by accident today. Tom's reaction was to get mad and yell, but I asked her to say sorry and then help us to pick up the food. I'm starting to think about how God feels about us as His children when we don't behave.

Manners -
Please - we usually have to ask her to say this
Gimme! - we usually have to ask her to add on "please"
Thank you - starting to teach her think. She's said it on her own a few times.
Sorry - getting better at saying this when I ask. She sees how happy I am when she says it. We also watched an episode of Daniel Tiger on this topic.

Development -
Allison is going through a mental growth spurt right now. She's learning/absorbing a lot of things and words at this age and is very observant. She knows about ownership (mommy's phone, coat, hat vs. daddy's vs. her's). She's also putting two and two together. For ex, outdoors, on observing airplains in the sky, we taught her that the airplane is in the sky. When inside, asking where it is, she would say "outside airplane sky". Her memory is very very sharp. One morning, I pointed out in a book that the duck was in the water. She told Tom that later that night. I wore a particular jacket one day, one that I hadn't worn in a while, and the next day, she identified it as mine. She knows exactly which pocket in my purse that I store my phone. It's amazing for us to watch her grow.

Words -
The number of single words that she now knows is too much for me to count. She is able to say 3 word phrases now.
Bless you daddy (which she funnily says after anyone sneezes, burps or coughs)
I see you (when we say when she hides)
Thank you mommy
outside airplane sky
can count from 1-10. Now teaching her 11 - 20.
shapes - can recognize most. still has trouble with colors.

Songs which she knows most of the words to - 
ABC (very surprising to me that she knows the song verbally, even the part at the end "now I know.. next time..". We are working on identifying the letters now, which she can for A - G.
Mary had a little lamb
Wheels on the bus
Row Row Row your boat
Twinkle Twinkle

Eat -
She loves her meats and carbs. I would sneak in veggies through smoothies, but then I read that that doesn't teach them to love veggies. I think read an article that gave the idea to serve veggies first on its own. With no other food option + a hungry stomach, they should be better about eating it. I tried it a few times with edemames, Jap yam and roasted cauliflower and it worked! This month she has tried frozen blueberries which she loves, and I freeze smoothies into small bite sized ice cubes which she enjoys as well. Going to try freezing yogurt next.

Potty -
Allison is able to identify that she has to go #2 before it happens. However, she does not want to do it on the potty yet (it's quite early for it anyway so I don't push her. Will try more around 24 months). The times that I put her on there, she is able to go #1, so that is promising. Her school is to help with potty training as well.

Sleep -
Bedtime routine continues to be where mommy gives her a bath, brushes teeth and daddy reads her books and puts her in her crib. It has evolved from him patting her to sleep to him sitting nearby but not patting. The aim is to get her to be able to fall asleep on her own. The problem is that she has separation anxiety right now, a normal thing that happens to toddlers during their quest for independence (venturing on their own yet wanting a safety net).

Unfortunately, because of her mental growth spurt, she is going through a sleep regression since May 24, which means she wakes up in the middle of the night, like at 3am. This is because her mind is working overtime to proccess all of the things that happened during the day. Tom has to go in and help her go back to sleep. I can't be involved in putting her to bed because there is a certain dependency that she on me that we are trying to wean from.

Summer -
We hope to do many fun activities with her this summer. We already went to the zoo, and want to go to the Brooklyn Bridge Park, Manhattan, museums, and swimming. There's going to be a big change coming up when we move into our new house in July. I hope that she is able to transition well.