First Year of M (And us, a family of 4)

She is walking faster, more confidently. She has a temper. She also has a sweet nature, if you can imagine it coexisting with a monstrous temper :D She is naughty, determined and she hasn't been the star of a post on this blog in a long time. She said "milt" clearly yesterday morning, when J placed her in the high chair and she saw her sippy cup of milk. Oh, that reminds me! She has been weaned from the bottle. Completely!!

And she throws really high-quality, best-value-for-money, ring-side-seat worthy, sooper-dooper-jumbo tantrums!! She threw one yesterday. Non-stop screeching, screaming, crying, not-eating, not-drinking-"milt", not-letting-go-of-sippy-cup ONE-FRIGGIN'-HOUR-LONG tantrum. What did I do? Didn't lose my temper for one. And I am mighty proud of it :) I am getting really good with not losing my temper with this one. Only thing that makes me feel guilty is that I did lose my temper with S for lesser/smaller things when she was little. I guess first children lose out in that respect. But they teach an invaluable lesson to their parents. Of tolerance, of tuning oneself out during a whine or a tantrum, of not whacking or not yelling or of not doing whatever the parent might be feeling guilty of doing to the older child. They are the best on-the-job training one can get :)

I have been told by my mom that my father used to whack me one every now and then. "MY father?" I asked incredulously when this information was passed on. I don't remember the whacking. But then my father wrote me a long email once telling me how he feels guilty that he used to occasionally smack me if I were being stubborn. (And for the record, I wouldn't blame him - I WAS that kind of stubborn :P) And he said by the time my younger brother came along, he had learnt to control his anger much better. He advised me to learn to control my temper with S or I would have to field the same guilt one day. He was so right! But on a separate note to my brother - you should be thankful to me buddy, that I "trained" pa!

Anyway, so getting back to the little monster. She turned one and I didn't write about it. She had a birthday party and I didn't write about it. She is being transitioned to the "Toddlers' room" at her daycare and... well, I am writing about it now :P Yesterday's tantrum was probably a result of the stress of being in a new environment and missing her favorite care providers.

Most days she wakes up and keeps playing in her crib on her own until one of us stirs. Not a peep out of her until then. As soon as one of us as much as lets out a slight cough, she is up, holding the crib's railing with one hand, and dragging her blanket up with another, calling out "eh?". And the calls become insistent if we pretend not to hear (which we do sometimes, the meanie parents that we are!) Only occasionally, if she is probably hungry or wants a diaper change RIGHT NOW, does she wake us up by crying. Of course, I know that Murphy's whatever law dictates that tomorrow she WILL wake up crying. So consider it already recorded here.

Her most favorite toy is a plastic kitchen clip inside a transparent plastic container, which she endlessly pulls out and puts back in. Sometimes I give her containers in different shapes, sizes and colors and that just triples the fun you know! Loves going to the dishwasher and smiling at her reflection in the shiny black surface. (Please note my subtle way of telling you that yes! I wipe and clean the dishwasher!!) Loves fruits of all kinds. Her daycare provider tells me that she can't cut up peaches fast enough for M to eat. She loves cherries, strawberries, papayas, mangoes, watermelons and bananas.

She is a social animal as has been demonstrated on many occasions at functions, parties and get-togethers. At her own birthday party, she ate lunch with one of her aunts, played with one of her cousins, went to everyone who would care to look in her direction, blissfully ate all the strawberries she could lay her hands on and didn't go to sleep until the last guest had departed with a cheerful "bye".

She has cut many, many teeth. I haven't counted, and I haven't "explored". And she didn't show many external "signs" of teething either. She'd be a little cranky and stop eating and we'd guess that she must be cutting a tooth.

She has been sick a lot of times during the last 14 months. Has had 5 or 6 ear infections, many stomach upsets, stomach upsets due to lactose intolerance, numerous coughs, colds, fevers and yes, one cut lip too. But all through it she has remained the (half) joy of our life (the other half being S), the laughter in our home (one half of the laughter, the other half being S'), the shine on our faces and the light in our hearts (again, half of each: S completes the other half).