Wow, Tienna is changing so fast it's hard to keep up, as a result we are having lots of firsts and lasts. I have to admit that most of the lasts do make me sad as I know this is the last time I will get to experience them and I am reasonably sure Tienna is not only my second child but also my last.
It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago Tienna could not even crawl, she dragged herself "army style" across the floor, she now crawls at what seems like the speed of light, typically laughing as she does. She can stand on her own for longer periods of time and can take 3 or 4 steps but she always falls (typically into my arms) as she is not just trying to walk, she is trying to run, while laughing herself silly!! Her favorite thing to do is be on the move, she loves "walking" around the house with me behind her holding her hands, my back aches but it's well worth it. She has finally paid attention to me telling/showing her how to get downstairs and can do it pretty well. I catch her ½ way up the stairs quite a bit…hey she moves fast!!!
She now likes to cuddle (on her terms!), comes to me for cuddles and hugs, has sort of learned how to kiss…ok it's more that she puts her open mouth on yours but she is getting the idea. She will hug and is trying to tickle people, might have something to do with the fact that everyone tickles her, especially Ciera. My absolute favorite thing (and Ciera still loves this too and asks for me to do it) is when she places her little cheek on mine and just cuddles into me…hand down my absolute favorite. Tienna will now also put her arms around my neck and hug…awwww so sweet eh?
This girl loves to "talk" and "talks" loudly!! Non stop…..and she has a great sense of humour, she will be by herself in the back seat of the car (rear facing still) babbling away and then hysterical laughter follows, I'm not sure I want to know why J. Tonight I caught her glaring at me with a twinkle in her eyes and then she burst out laughing…oh yes this child is going to be my troublemaker!!
For some odd reason now that the warmer weather is here, every time she gets her jacket on she holds up her hands and say "aah?" she wants her mittens on, I oblige her and then she laughs….why do I feel she is mocking me? She would not wear them all winter and NOW she wants to wear them?! She still however hates socks and shoes and takes them off at every opportunity. Every time we get out of the car I have to conduct a search for at least one sock and shoe if not both.
Her favorite expression is "aaahhh?" she says this for lots of stuff, I guess enquiring minds do want to know. She seems to understand a lot of what is said to her, however the word "no" still makes her very angry. I am pretty sure she said "uh oh" today and my sister swears she said "banana" the other week .
Oh…. another great first (not!)…..her first temper tantrum. My Auntie J had given her a couple sips of tea and then was not giving her anymore, so Tienna threw herself on the floor and proceeded to have a tantrum, which we all ignored. I have a feeling this is the first of many, this child is very headstrong and has quite the temper.
Tienna finally eats more normally now, by that I mean she is not loudly squawking if the spoon is not at her mouth the moment she has swallowed the last mouthful, she was so used to it being shoveled into her at the babyhouse that anything less was not fast enough. Her mouth also now does not open to its full width, while it was cute….. again I know why it was and now she is opening it "normally". At meal time now she will actually look away, at the dog, at Ciera, and not totally pay attention to the meal which is great progress and allows me to eat at the same time! She is also not stuffing everything into her mouth when she is feeding herself, she is now waiting until she has swallowed to put the next bite in...yeah!
The head banging is almost gone, thank goodness. This was one behavior that I wanted to see go, it's very disturbing to see your child banging her head on the highchair (she managed to bruise her forehead a couple of times) or on the ceramic floor. The advice I was given was to ignore it and not react or give in and as hard as it was to do, I realized yesterday I had not seen her do it for awhile.
Tienna LOVES the water….she laughs the moment she is in it, she kicks her legs and moves her arms. She will now sit on the edge of the pool, I tell her to wait and then I step back, let go of her and count…1….2…..3 with the laughing the whole time and on 3 she wiggles her bum to propel her off the edge of the pool into the water and I catch her under the water. I swear she drinks ½ the pool but she loves it. A future Olympian swimmer perhaps?
I'm glad both Ciera and Tienna love the water, Ciera is always asking to go swimming. She is quite a good little swimmer now, but I have to admit last week at her lesson I could barely watch. She has moved up a level and her new instructor took them to the deep end, they had to jump in, tread water and swim back to the edge of the pool. Much to Ciera's chagrin the other 2 children in her class are bigger (and older) than her. The boy went first and did it, the other girl would not do it, and so Ciera went, I literally held my breath. Yes rationally I know she was surrounded by lifeguards but still, I was on edge. However she jumped in, went under, bobbed up, tread water and then swam to the edge. I was so proud of her!!!
Ciera has a few firsts of her own…..she has been practicing her headstands since we left for Kaz, (while there she did them against anything, walls, doors, me, Irina….) and tonight she finally did one without any support at all, all on her own in the middle of the room. I keep telling her that to get good at anything you need to practice and tonight she after this she said "my practice worked".
After a rocky start at reading ("I can't do this, it's too hard") she is reading more and more and is not frustrated with it anymore. I kept telling her "remember when you didn't know how to swim or skate, it was hard too and now it's easy, you just need to practice" and I also found books she enjoys, and give her lots of praise. Now she is sounding out words and has learnt around 30 of her 100 sight words in the past few weeks. She is getting little readers at school and can "read" them…..yep she is not really reading them….after having them read twice she memorizes them. While I am proud of her memory, she is missing on the reading part…but I figure it helps her self esteem and her confidence to think she is reading so it's got to be good right?
It's hard to believe that just a few short months ago Tienna could not even crawl, she dragged herself "army style" across the floor, she now crawls at what seems like the speed of light, typically laughing as she does. She can stand on her own for longer periods of time and can take 3 or 4 steps but she always falls (typically into my arms) as she is not just trying to walk, she is trying to run, while laughing herself silly!! Her favorite thing to do is be on the move, she loves "walking" around the house with me behind her holding her hands, my back aches but it's well worth it. She has finally paid attention to me telling/showing her how to get downstairs and can do it pretty well. I catch her ½ way up the stairs quite a bit…hey she moves fast!!!
She now likes to cuddle (on her terms!), comes to me for cuddles and hugs, has sort of learned how to kiss…ok it's more that she puts her open mouth on yours but she is getting the idea. She will hug and is trying to tickle people, might have something to do with the fact that everyone tickles her, especially Ciera. My absolute favorite thing (and Ciera still loves this too and asks for me to do it) is when she places her little cheek on mine and just cuddles into me…hand down my absolute favorite. Tienna will now also put her arms around my neck and hug…awwww so sweet eh?
This girl loves to "talk" and "talks" loudly!! Non stop…..and she has a great sense of humour, she will be by herself in the back seat of the car (rear facing still) babbling away and then hysterical laughter follows, I'm not sure I want to know why J. Tonight I caught her glaring at me with a twinkle in her eyes and then she burst out laughing…oh yes this child is going to be my troublemaker!!
For some odd reason now that the warmer weather is here, every time she gets her jacket on she holds up her hands and say "aah?" she wants her mittens on, I oblige her and then she laughs….why do I feel she is mocking me? She would not wear them all winter and NOW she wants to wear them?! She still however hates socks and shoes and takes them off at every opportunity. Every time we get out of the car I have to conduct a search for at least one sock and shoe if not both.
Her favorite expression is "aaahhh?" she says this for lots of stuff, I guess enquiring minds do want to know. She seems to understand a lot of what is said to her, however the word "no" still makes her very angry. I am pretty sure she said "uh oh" today and my sister swears she said "banana" the other week .
Oh…. another great first (not!)…..her first temper tantrum. My Auntie J had given her a couple sips of tea and then was not giving her anymore, so Tienna threw herself on the floor and proceeded to have a tantrum, which we all ignored. I have a feeling this is the first of many, this child is very headstrong and has quite the temper.
Tienna finally eats more normally now, by that I mean she is not loudly squawking if the spoon is not at her mouth the moment she has swallowed the last mouthful, she was so used to it being shoveled into her at the babyhouse that anything less was not fast enough. Her mouth also now does not open to its full width, while it was cute….. again I know why it was and now she is opening it "normally". At meal time now she will actually look away, at the dog, at Ciera, and not totally pay attention to the meal which is great progress and allows me to eat at the same time! She is also not stuffing everything into her mouth when she is feeding herself, she is now waiting until she has swallowed to put the next bite in...yeah!
The head banging is almost gone, thank goodness. This was one behavior that I wanted to see go, it's very disturbing to see your child banging her head on the highchair (she managed to bruise her forehead a couple of times) or on the ceramic floor. The advice I was given was to ignore it and not react or give in and as hard as it was to do, I realized yesterday I had not seen her do it for awhile.
Tienna LOVES the water….she laughs the moment she is in it, she kicks her legs and moves her arms. She will now sit on the edge of the pool, I tell her to wait and then I step back, let go of her and count…1….2…..3 with the laughing the whole time and on 3 she wiggles her bum to propel her off the edge of the pool into the water and I catch her under the water. I swear she drinks ½ the pool but she loves it. A future Olympian swimmer perhaps?
I'm glad both Ciera and Tienna love the water, Ciera is always asking to go swimming. She is quite a good little swimmer now, but I have to admit last week at her lesson I could barely watch. She has moved up a level and her new instructor took them to the deep end, they had to jump in, tread water and swim back to the edge of the pool. Much to Ciera's chagrin the other 2 children in her class are bigger (and older) than her. The boy went first and did it, the other girl would not do it, and so Ciera went, I literally held my breath. Yes rationally I know she was surrounded by lifeguards but still, I was on edge. However she jumped in, went under, bobbed up, tread water and then swam to the edge. I was so proud of her!!!
Ciera has a few firsts of her own…..she has been practicing her headstands since we left for Kaz, (while there she did them against anything, walls, doors, me, Irina….) and tonight she finally did one without any support at all, all on her own in the middle of the room. I keep telling her that to get good at anything you need to practice and tonight she after this she said "my practice worked".
After a rocky start at reading ("I can't do this, it's too hard") she is reading more and more and is not frustrated with it anymore. I kept telling her "remember when you didn't know how to swim or skate, it was hard too and now it's easy, you just need to practice" and I also found books she enjoys, and give her lots of praise. Now she is sounding out words and has learnt around 30 of her 100 sight words in the past few weeks. She is getting little readers at school and can "read" them…..yep she is not really reading them….after having them read twice she memorizes them. While I am proud of her memory, she is missing on the reading part…but I figure it helps her self esteem and her confidence to think she is reading so it's got to be good right?
