Can’t Rush Me
TLE, the cheeky Empress
The Little Empress recently added two new, long awaited words to her vocabulary:
“Mommy! Daddy!”
Before last weekend, she would say “Mom” and “Dad.” Less often, she’d say “Mama” and “Dada”
I like the certain ring the words “Mommy” and “Daddy” have to them. I like this change.
* *
One of the more heartbreaking things about her speech delay is that we’re still waiting to hear her say, “I love you.”
We know she loves us. But sometimes, you just really… really… want to hear it.
But I can be patient for just a little while longer. If The Little Empress has taught me anything, it is that she does everything on her own terms, when she’s ready. I know I’ll hear it, eventually. And when I do, I know that she’ll mean it and it will make hearing it that much sweeter.
Can't rush her -- perfection takes time.
First Day
The Little Empress Playing
And so my precious little one attended school today for the very first time. While not an “official” pre-school, it is still very pre-school like with circle time and everything. For the whole week prior to her first day, I worried about how she would fare. Her separation anxiety when she was younger was legendary, crying non-stop for nearly an hour until I returned home. I mentally prepared myself to stay with her the whole day, if need be. (Luckily, the school has an open door policy and parents can sit in for as long as they’d like.)
I stayed about fifteen minutes, watching as TLE quickly acclimated herself to this toy-filled wonderland known as her classroom. It was clear that The Little Empress was overjoyed to be there. TOYS! So many TOYS to play with! So many new things to see! New people to smile at! She zoomed happily from one toy station to another, playing in the play kitchen, climbing up and down stairs, gleefully stacking blocks and pounding on a Wiggles guitar.
A few minutes until opening circle, I called to her lightly, “Okay, I’m going to go now. I’ll see you later!”
She raised a hand to wave goodbye… but didn’t even turn around. She was too entranced with whatever she was playing with at the moment.
… so much for all that worrying! She had a grand old time and school and I know she can’t wait to go back tomorrow. 
Snippety Snip
I was a bald baby, born with absolutely no hair on my big ass noggin. I didn’t have what one could categorize as “hair” until I was nearly 2 years old and even then, it was thin and whispy. I did not grow a proper head of hair until I was in preschool. And what did I get after that? A rice bowl haircut! Pfft!
When The Little Empress was born, the first thing I asked was “Does she have hair?” I was assured that indeed, my little girl was born with a full head of hair! It went through some wacky stages in her first year of life, going from thick and robust to this weird male-pattern baldness thing around 3 months to nearly completely bald by the time she was six months old! At about that time it began to grow normally and by around late summer last year, I was excited to be able to finally put it into (tiny) pigtails!
But as her hair grew longer, it also grew into her eyes. I kept on getting poked by my parents to get her a haircut already. I was hesitant about cutting her hair because I loved the idea of my little girl having long hair. I would pull her hair into a side ponytail (circa 1980s) as seen here.
Side ponytail
Granted, this 80s ponytail is adorable as hell but really, I couldn’t keep it up forever. I finally decided that enough was enough and it was time to get her the haircut.
So finally, at just a week shy of her 2nd birthday, we took The Little Empress to the local children’s hair salon to get her a cute little haircut. She didn’t like the drape but she loved the Lightning McQueen salon car she got to sit in so that distracted her enough to get her hair cut.
Getting her haircut
Here’s the final result:
New 'do
The salon gave her a really cute cut! Her bangs are a nice, even length and while they did keep the overall length, she’s got some nice layers to keep the hair from getting into her face. In fact, it is pretty close to what I normally get when I get a hair cut!
I’m so proud of what a little trooper The Little Empress turned out to be. I was sure she’d tantrum so this was a nice surprise. Since this was her first haircut, the salon gave us a commemorative certificate with a cute little instant photo of her as well as a lock of her hair tucked away in a little bag. *sniff* She’s really looking more and more grown up these days. Her baby days really are long gone!
Read MoreMs. Independent
As The Little Empress’ 2nd birthday draws ever closer, it seems that she is growing exponentially more independent by the day. She started walking and standing around her first birthday. Around this time, she also began to refuse to be spoon fed. Rather than fight about every meal, I would simply cut her food into manageable pieces and put them on her tray for her to feed herself.
A few months after that, as she became steadier on her feet, she began to balk at being worn despite having been worn nearly every day of her life prior to that. She was insistent on being allowed to walk and explore for herself. As she gained more mobility, she began to balk at being put in her high chair. We ended up selling off her high chair, allowing her to sit in a booster seat. The booster seat didn’t last long as she realized that the adults in the house didn’t use boosters. For at least the past few months, she has been sitting at a regular chair, just like the adults. (Unfortunately, she also insists on sitting in regular chairs at most restaurants which, as you can probably imagine, is troublesome.)
These days, she’s asserting her continued growing independence by successfully thwarting baby gates and insisting on going down steps on her own. She’s been climbing up the steps for quite awhile but climbing down them, and throwing herself onto the floor if we try to carry her, is a new thing. She now insists on being allowed to walk and explore when we go shopping rather than be content to sit in the shopping cart.
The change in her in just a year has been incredible. She’s gone from an almost excessively clingy baby who screamed incessantly when approached by strangers to this insatiably curious, gregarious and social toddler. She still has her shy moments but for the most part, she’s happy and well adjusted.
The Hubs remarked recently, “With all this breastfeeding and co-sleeping and such, she may be independent but hopefully, she’ll always know that she can come back to us.” And that’s when I remembered that this is why we’ve chosen to parent the way we have. Our goal has always been to meet her physical and emotional needs, no matter what they are. We have always sought to nurture her self-esteem, to let her know that she’s always loved, cared for and adored. The idea is that if she knows that she will always be unconditionally loved and cared for, she will have the self-esteem to explore and learn about her world without worry, knowing that we’ll always support her and that we are always here for her when she wants to check in.
And when The Little Empress begins to negotiate the stairs, she peers to the side and smiles as if to say, “Hey Mommy, look at me! I’m doing it all by myself!” before returning to the task at hand. She is not afraid. She has confidence in herself and knows that I am there to cheer her on.
I smile back and think to myself, “Huh, I guess this whole attachment parenting thing is working out after all.”
Read MoreCatching up…
Oh my poor, neglected blog, how I have missed you! I haven’t written in you since November… which was only about a week and a half a go but that’s a lifetime in blogtalk. I had been writing up a bunch of plans for a revamp of this blog, start getting some actual useful content to go along with my blitherings and maybe get a project or two up to see.
The blog revamp has been slow as I am still testing stuff on my test server. I have several yards of fabric waiting to be washed and pressed before being made into whatever I’ve planned for them, which I’m hoping will be a reversible pouch and a meitai. Daily life and happily, my freelancing has been keeping me busy. (*waves to folks stopping by from Freelance Parent* ) I’m happy to write stuff to add to that portfolio of mine. Yay
But the one thing… or should I say person… that has been keeping me busier than anything else is, as always, The Little Empress. In the last week or so, The Little Empress has learned to creep. OH DEAR GOD SHE IS MOBILE. She is creeping around, her arms dragging her body with her legs sort of helping. She’s amazingly fast and ever since she’s realized that she can get around on her own, she’s been more than happy to do so. Gone are the days that I could leave her on the couch without worrying about her rolling off. Now instead of rolling off, I’m afraid she’ll creep off!
As proud as I am of my little girl for growing up, I can’t help but be a little sad, too. Time marches on and every day, she’s getting closer to walking away from me. 
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Copyright
Text and photographs copyrighted by Michelle N unless otherwise noted.