Our Journey to Gracie...: Cupcake update...

How time flies! We have been ever-so-busy with our little lady! Sometimes weeks go by and we barely notice… We open our eyes and another month just went by just like that! Our girl is doing wonderfully! She has been learning so much and has grown in so many ways. We are definitely learning as we go along… Life is so different now! It’s so funny looking back, we were so naive… we used to talk about all the things we were going to do once our girl came home and the ways we were going to “implement” our new “life plan”(ha!) It has been a whirlwind …

Here’s a Cupcake update…

Chinese New Year

Baby girl can understand everything we tell her and she is able to respond in complete sentences.

She continues to be very independent. We want our Lil Cupcake to play and have fun, of course we want her to learn to do things but we want to take care of her. That’s what Moms and Dads do right? but she just wants to do everything on her own! Everything with our girl is a power struggle! We are sure it will serve her well when she is older but for right now… it drives us crazy! Sometimes we wonder if they lied to us in China about her date of birth and she’s just a little person passing by a two year old :0) She certainly acts like it…

She loves telling us what to do, when and how to do it! She’s a tough cookie! We have to constantly guide her and remind her who’s the Mommy and Daddy!

We have a girly girl Yeah! She loves clothes, shoes, accessories, baby dolls, princess stuff and she loves pink!

She is pretty much potty training herself. We really wanted to wait a little longer but after viewing Elmo’s potty training video she just asked to go potty and she did! At this point it’s just when she wants to go (of course we make a big deal out of it!)But when we ask her if she wants to try, her answers is always NO! So we don’t push the issue, at least not yet.

Sometimes we feel a bit insecure and wonder if we are doing this parenting thing right. Dealing with a toddler with such a big personality (who has been home with us for only 5 months) is challenging to say the least.

We spent lots of time reading and preparing before Baby girl came home. We waited 10 weeks before we introduced her to family and friends, we are her only caregivers (although we have gone on a few short but sweet dates :0) we meet her needs on demand to promote attachment and bonding. We want our daughter to learn to trust us and know in her heart that we are always going to be here for her no matter what. However…. baby girl is so used to us dropping whatever we are doing and rushing to meet her want and needs that now she is acting like a little diva! (It’s cute now but of course it will NOT be cute when she’s gets older). We don’t want our girl to be a brat and we need to know where to draw the line, which is very difficult since she has been with us for such a short period of time.

On the positive side, our girl is healthy, sweet and loving. She is curious and loves to learn new things. She is spunky; she has a sense of humor. Our baby girl is very friendly and polite. She is just a bundle of energy!

Every parent thinks their kid is super smart but we think our girl is pretty advanced for her age…

She loves to sing and has a thing about music; it’s very easy for her to memorize lyrics just by hearing them once or twice.

She is able to identify colors and shapes

She is able to identify some letters and numbers in random order

She is able to count to 10 in English and Spanish (we have to learn the Chinese version to teach her)

She loves anything arts & crafts, books, playing with play- dough

She is able to cut with preschool scissors and we have to constantly watch her because she is ready to give herself a new hair style!

She loves ABC Mouse games

She still likes to watch her TV shows, Yo Gabba Gabba, Dora the explorer, Blue’s clues, Bubble Guppies, and Mickey Mouse Club are still her favorites. It’s fun to watch her following along the episodes while giggling, dancing and singing her little heart out :0) We stopped watching Peppa Pig (even though that’s her very favorite show)as we noticed many annoying things she was starting to copy!

Our girl is not afraid of anything, she is just full of wonder ready to explore and learn. Life with our girl is so busy but we wouldn't have it any other way! She is our everything, she is definitely our greatest adventure!