Naughty and Nice

Well, Miss Abbey has completely transformed herself into a full-fledged toddler this week. The good news is that she is smart enough to get into everything, that of course is also the bad news. This also goes for walking and climbing, which is such a big help to mama, but also quite a challenge. Forget my books about Super Baby Foods, Gymboree Games, etc. I am now going to delve into Raising Your Strong-Willed Child and the like. Yesterday while getting home just in time for lunch, bottle, and nap schedule, I had a major snafu while trying to hold the baby, diaper bag, purse, and grab several grocery bags from the trunk. Abbey wiggled and my keys (in slow motion) flew from my hands, soared through the air, and went down through the grate into the parking lot sewer. She had a sopping wet diaper on, and was ready for food and bed, and I had a trunk full of frozen foods, and we were locked out of the car and our house. After looking around and seeing no one out and about mid-day I went to the nearest neighbor who had just moved in and I hadn't met yet. She let us come in, put food in her freezer, do a diaper change on her living room floor and helped us find a phone number for our home owners association. She was working from her home office which I found was stacked with huge Chinese dictionaries. It turns out she is a professional translator with a Master's in Mandarin (this is so how my life goes - disasters that morph into something great like meeting her). Anyway, another unknown neighbor drove by and saw my distress and was able to pull off the grate off and CLIMB INTO THE SEWER and get my keys out. I was so relieved because I had been trying to calculate the cost of the fancy car key and the locksmith coming out to get me into the house. Somehow we managed a nap and dinner but as I was doing the dishes I noticed that the little feet behind me were very still and someone was very quiet. I turned around to see Zhuozhuo with her little mouth open in awe and out entire kitchen floor covered in blue cookie sprinkles. I really get into baking and decorating cookies and have a drawer with special decors. Of course it has a baby latch but she had stuck her hand through pulled it out, unscrewed the lid, and dumped everything in about 20 seconds flat. They weren't rectangular shaped sugar crystals that just lay there, they were very tiny blue beads that bounce and roll, about a million of them. The vacuum cleaner just made them fly around so I had to crawl on the floor with attachments with ZZ screaming because she is afraid of the noise. It took a loooong time to clean up. Did I mention that she locked us both in the bathroom the other day right as we were leaving to meet someone and I couldn't get the door knob unjambed for several minutes? Or the night that we both went to bed crying because she kept pulling my hair and then I finally pulled hers to show her what it felt like? Or that she she bit me twice (playfully, but not fun on the receiving end)? Our baby phase was very short but I am thrilled that she is developing like any child her age, maybe even a little ahead of schedule....it's the terrible two's, right? No one said anything about 19 months.
She had her first dentist appointment this week and they thought her teeth looked great. We are really making progress with the toothbrushing thanks to all of your tips and suggestions.
Today we went to Early Intervention and she can qualify just because of the deprived environment that she came from and to make sure that we work on any sensory integration concerns I have, which are basically all due to lack of exposure to different temperatures, substances (grass, sand, etc.) They said that congnitively she is doing great and is really bright. She loved sitting in the little chair and having them give her tasks to do. She will also be assessed for speech. Most babies her age know 20-30 words and she just knows 4 - hi, mama, ba-ba (our word for bottle), and her favorite "uh-oh" which she uses 100 times a day. I think this is impressive due to her newness to hearing English. She is moving at a more rapid clip than I am with Mandarin for sure. Her receptive language is great. When I tell her to do little tasks she is so proud to go do them or get ready for whatever I am talking about. The other day a friend loaned us a whole set of Signing Time videos which we are thrilled with. While we were at her house we ate grapes (yes, I cut them lengthwise) and our friend showed us the sign for grapes. So, at 4:15 a.m. guess who woke up and started signing grapes to me and laughing in the middle of the night? She so wants to communicate and accomplish things. When we are at the park and the big kids (that she is totally enamored with) are running around yelling, she laughs and gestures and acts like she is a part of all the action, even though they don't even notice her. We also went to visit her childcare this week and it was so wonderful. I love this lady and I can feel the Lord in her home. There are more fun toys and things than you can ever imagine and ZZ latched on to a stethescope right away which she recognized from our doctors visits. We pretended to use it on each other and she wore it the rest of the morning. Let me tell you I had to pry her away from it when we left, but I was thrilled that she will be so motivated to come back. Her eyes were as big as saucers watching the interactions of the other 4 children who range from 1-4 yrs. She has been invited to her first birthday party for a 4 yr. old friend who goes to her daycare and our church. I am so excited for her but it means I will be doing something I was planning on never doing...going to Chuck E. Cheese. Yes, I am the mom of a toddler, full-tilt. We are watching The Wiggles, signing "more" and "food", and singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider throughout the day and night. Oh, and calling my sister in tears with mommy guilt and self-doubt about all the discipline I am having to impose now. Yes, I am the mommy and I have to do it. My sister was soooooo encouraging about how safe the boundaries make it for the child and solidify our relationship as Mother/Daughter. I know all this as a teacher, but somehow I thought after all Abbey has been through we wouldn't need to do all this so soon, but here we go! Oh, and how did I have time to write all this? I told my mom I was having a meltdown and to come help me again so she is down playing with Abbey and a friend from church is on her way over bringing me a turkey dinner. Yea!