New Kira Things

Kira seems to do or say something new every few weeks. Here is a list of new things from the past month or so:

Things she says, and I quote:

- Daddy, you go upstairs by yourself while I watch Mei Mei (little sister in Chinese).

- Yee Yee (maternal auntie in Chinese), do you like cheese cake better or ice cream better?

- I'm the old baby

- I'm crossing my legs (said, as she crosses her legs like a business woman)

- It's a tunic, Kew Kew (maternal uncle in Chinese)

FYI, her Chinese is pretty much nonexistent at this point. =(

Kira can color pictures while staying inside the lines. She can also free-hand draw a variety of things, such as, flowers, fish, bananas; earlier on, she could only draw smiley faces. Kira has slowed down on the painting lately. I guess she's bored with it. I can't wait for her to start art lessons!

Kira puts on dance shows. It's a combination of ballet, jazz and new age. Her usual dance uniform is a T-shirt, tights and a tutu.

Kira is good at puzzles. We bought her a large-scale puzzle about two months ago. At that time, she had absolutely no clue what to do with it. Then, she developed more patience to watch others do the puzzle for her. Then she started playing a little on her own, but couldn't piece the puzzle together at all. Now, she picks and chooses certain pieces and will get them to link together. Half the time she gets it right!

Kira needs discipline. I was going to write this in an entry for itself, but I might as well just put it here. By discipline, I don't mean punishment. To me, discipline is teaching Kira consistent rules and that there are consequences to breaking the rules. She's been pretty good up to this point. She understood there were consequences and tried her best to follow the rules. However, now that she's older, she pushes her limits and I've had to follow through with the consequences more so than before. Specifically, when she doesn't get her way, she cries, kicks and screams. In the past, her tantrums served as an outlet for her extreme emotions. But lately, she has been using her tantrums as a means of manipulation. She knows that I don't like the tantrums and she keeps it up to the point of losing control. During these times, when her tantrums escalate with no sign of progressing towards improved behavior, I give her a time out. So far, I've given her two time outs (in her entire life). Both times were in the presence of her grandparents. Clearly, she knows she may have a chance at breaking the rules if the grandparents are around. Her time outs last no more than 2 minutes, and after I bring her back to the group, I tell her she needs to calm down, and she does because she doesn't want to go back to time out. I've only had to do it twice because once she starts to escalate, I remind her that she may need a time out, and she calms down quickly.

The most difficult aspect of teaching discipline is making sure Kira's caretakers consistently enforce the rules. She breaks rules when I'm not around and thus thinks rules are breakable. On days I care for her (and Renee), she throws tantrums when I don't let her get away with breaking rules. This vicious pattern kills me. By the end of the day I'm completely spent from dealing with Kira's behavior while also juggling Renee's needs. I know it's not the easiest for Kira's non-parental caretakers to be strict with her, but unless they are, my days become more difficult than they would be...everyone is doing their best. Besides that, Kira is 2 years old. I always remind myself that it is typical for kids her age to test their parents. I should get used to it. She'll probably test me every day for the rest of my life.