Thankful Tuesday: Some new discoveries about my girls

In the past week, we attempted to cross some milestones with both our children. For baby girl, it was going out with Daddy and Mommy. Just the three of us. For the first time, I took public transport with baby girl alone (something that I have done countless times with the tod). It was some quality time spent with our little one before we adjourned to meet a friend for dinner.

Out with baby girl!

Thankful for a great time catching up with dear friend

Two days later, we went out again. This time, it was the entire clan for dinner with the grandparents. From these two trips, we noted a pattern: Baby girl does not feed well in public. She tends to get over-stimulated and probably feel harassed by the spotlights and the bustling crowds.

Just yesterday (today is Wednesday, and yes, I am late!), we brought both girls out again. The trip confirmed what we speculated - Baby girl is harassed by the spotlights. We were dining at bakerzin @ Suntec and eventually I bundled her to the bottom of the stairways that led to B2 carpark where there were no overhead spotlights nor noisy crowds to feed her. It worked! 

As for the toddler,this week, we started on potty training. I will write a more detailed separate post again but the point I want to make here is the discovery I've made through the process of potty-training - The toddler has a perfectionist streak in her. 

The moment she grasped the idea of keeping herself clean and dry, she refused to eliminate in the diaper. At one time, she even outrightly rejected wearing diapers which sent us into panic mode as we scurried to think of ideas to convince her to wear diaper to bed. And every time for some reason or another, when she could not make it to the potty in time and wet / soiled herself, she got really worked up and cried buckets. Till date (today is Day 4), most of the times that she wore diaper to bed, she would still be dry when she woke up. The one time that she had no qualms about eliminating in her diaper was when we went out yesterday to an indoor playground. That totally distracted her and we left the playground with a full diaper 3 hours later.

Having a ball of time

A few instances over the course of this week led us to make another discovery we about the toddler - she is a sensitive soul. Just the other day before her nap time, she nearly drove me up the walls by deciding to do the opposite of everything that I asked her. Told her to kiss her baby sister 'goodnight' and she smacked her. Told her it was time to keep her puzzles and she insisted that she still wanted to play. Everything that I asked her was responded with a resounding 'no'. The final straw came when I asked her to come to me (I wanted to give her a drink of water before letting her climb into bed) but she walked away instead. I snapped and raised my voice at her, "Stop it, Anya!". Her eyes widen for a split second while she froze in her pace. Then she continued walking away, assuming a nonchalant air. Still, I regretted for shouting and pulled her into my arms, telling her that I was sorry. 

Her response took me by surprise. 

She burst out crying as she tightened her little arms around me. In between sobs, she said, "Sorry, Mommy.". 

I was so glad that I took the initiative to apologise. Had I not done so, my little girl would probably bottle up all her feelings and who knows what will come out of those pent-up negativity. Nothing good, surely.

I am so thankful, that we get to know deeper about our children. And that God turned little difficult moments into lessons to be learned for us. Once again, I am ever so grateful to have God in my life. Had it been the old me, I probably will not think of apologising to my child. Understanding that children are God's blessings to us simply makes us even more careful in the way we treat them.

What are you thankful for this week?