Sympathetic Soul

Dear Mackenzie,

Now that your siblings are all back in school, there is no one home to play with you during the day while I do housework. Sometimes, I have to leave you in your room but you are not really good at knowing how to entertain yourself, so you just sit at the gate and wait for my return, like a little puppy. Sometimes, it takes awhile for me to get back to you and this happens:

I love how toddlers can fall asleep anywhere! Hopefully, you will learn to be more independent over the next few months. But one emotion you already excel at is empathy. Empathy is one of the qualities I value the most and it makes me so proud when you are aware of others' feelings. The other day, JieJie was talking to me when she suddenly started crying about how difficult her homework was. You were playing but when you heard JieJie crying, your eyes widened and you immediately crawled over and hugged her. This morning, I was watching a show about 9/11 and my eyes started to well up. I wasn't audibly crying but you immediately recognized that I was sad, climbed up onto the couch and into my lap and hugged me. Thank you, sweetheart!

And in vocab news, you have learned how to say Anna (you love reading Frozen books!), night-night and yi-yi (Chinese for bad). You said the latter when you held up a page that had been ripped out of a book. I don't know if you had ripped it or Second GuhGaw had but at least you knew it was something you shouldn't do!

Love,

Mom

Uh-Oh!

Dear Mackenzie,

When Second GuhGaw was your age, he almost always slept next to me at nighttime and had to be touching me. You are the same! I have to lay down with you for you to fall asleep and while I can transfer you to your crib without you waking up, you do inevitably wake up after a couple hours and only sleep through the night if you're next to me in my bed. Then, whenever you stir awake, you immediately need to feel my skin in order to be comforted enough to fall back asleep. That is why I am often awakened in the middle of the night by your palm on my cheek or your hand stroking my arm. Last night, I was jerked awake when you started tugging on the blanket--I had wrapped it around my shoulders so you kept pulling at it until you uncovered my arm and could feel it. Oye.

In other news, you learned how to say "Po Po" (PoiPoi, Chinese for grandmother), "oo" (shoe) and "uh-oh!" And you use that latter one a lot!

Love,

Mom

Phone It In

Dear Mackenzie,

Second GuhGaw has a Ninja Turtle building set that includes a small ladder and you loooooove carrying that ladder around and pretending it is your phone. You hold it up to your ear to "chat" with someone and also put it over your eye and pretend to take photos with it. You even say "Cheeeeese!" and make a shutter sound: kshhh kshhh kshhh. So cute!

Also, you have said so many new words in the past couple days: beebee (baby), na (nap), bah (bath), bull (table), sna (snack). You are so smart!

Love,

Mom

Mask Up

Dear Mackenzie,

Sign of the times: You learned how to say "mask" this week. (You actually pronounce it "mah" when you point to the masks on our faces.) I don't remember when your siblings first said the word mask, but it definitely wasn't during those first few months when they were beginning to speak real words. Of course, we never wore masks when they were younger while you have only known a world where we put on masks every time we leave the house. *sigh*

On a cuter note, you also said another new word yesterday: poo poo! You were playing the the living room when you suddenly stood up, tapped your butt and said "poo poo!" And you actually had, in fact, poo poo'd!

Love,
Mom

The Cat's Meow

Dear Mackenzie,

You are at such a fun age because there are so many new behaviors to witness every day! Here are just a few of them:

- When I am explaining things to you, you nod solemnly, as if you really do understand everything I'm saying.

- When you get excited about something, you pump your fists in the air and cheer, "YAAAAAY!"

- When JieJie was your age, her hair was always in her face and she didn't care. Conversely, you hate having wisps of hair in your face and constantly brush them away if your hair isn't tied up.

- You can say JieJie's name and often call out for her: "Li-a! Li-a!" You also say "Guh" when you're addressing or talking about your big brothers. When I was folding laundry the other night and you saw Second GuhGaw's socks, you grabbed it, said "Guh" and pointed at your foot.

- When I ask you something you don't know the answer to (like, "Why did you make that mess?"), you shrug your shoulders two or three times. It's so cute!

- You can identify many body parts, including your eyes, nose, chin, ears, fingers, hands, toes, feet, knees, elbows, back and belly button. Yesterday, you actually said "no" and pointed at your nose!

- You can imitate the sounds that several animals make: moo for cow, neigh for horse, baaa for sheep, snorts for pig and loud roars for lions, tigers and dinosaurs.

- You seem to be fascinated by birds. You often shout at them "doo doo doo doo!" and try to chase them.

- You have grown to love Bubble Guppies and say "buh buh buh buh buh" when you see the characters on TV or in books. You can even recognizably hum the theme song! You also still love Baby Shark and can hum the tune of that as well. When we were driving back from Ithaca last week, the only thing that finally got you to stop crying was listening to Baby Shark. I played it more than 10 times in a row and you happily bobbed your head and made the chomping arm motion each time.

- You are an independent woman. You often insist on doing things on your own, including feeding yourself, washing your hands and brushing your teeth. When you see me holding your toothbrush, you reach for it, make the "chhh chhh chhh" noise and imitate brushing your teeth back and forth. When I give you the toothbrush, you run to your mirror to brush and even use your bib to dab away any spit. You're also pretty good at pulling on your pants by yourself.

- You love dressing up, whether it's putting on hats, draping a scarf around your neck, putting on sunglasses and slippers or donning necklaces and bracelets. One day, you took one of your dresses out of the drawer, ran over to your mirror and held it up against your torso while you smiled and admired your reflection! 

- You now squint your eyes and grin a cheesy grin when posing for photos. And when I show you photos of yourself, our family or babies, you always tilt your head and sweetly say, "Ohhhhhhh!"

- You love yogurt-covered pretzels and chocolate chips. You also discovered where I keep the bags of chocolate chips and whenever the pantry cabinet is open, you run over to where the chocolate chips are, open your mouth widely, point to it and say, "Aaaahhhhh!" If I don't give you a chocolate chip, you open your mouth wider and say louder, "AAAAHHHH!" Like, Mama clearly didn't hear me so I will scream more loudly!

- In addition to the word nose, you have said so many new words recently: You held your cup out to me and asked for "nai nai"; you wanted a piggyback ride and said "back"; you saw Elmo and said his name; you finished your milk and exclaimed "done!"; you asked for a "nana" (banana) when you saw a bunch of them on the counter. Today you said for the first time bao bao (bread), bir (bird) and apple.

- When we celebrated GuhGaw's birthday at the beginning of the month, I told GuhGaw to sit down at the dining table in front of his cake. You immediately knew what was coming, ran to where I keep my camera bag and pointed at it.

- Whenever I leave the room, you get distressed and call out, "No no no no!"

- When I ask you, "Should you rip books?", you wag your finger and say, "No no!" (But you still rip pages out of books anyway!)

- When you see photos of me around the house, you excitedly point at them and exclaim, "Mama! Mama!"

- You love to sit and flip through books, dance to "Levitating" and "Beautiful Mistakes" and crawl around on the floor and meow like a cat.

- This morning, you put your arm around my neck and planted a big, firm kiss on my cheek. Love!

Love,

Mom

Squirrel!

Dear Mackenzie,

You and I went out this morning and when we got back home, Daddy asked how our outing had been. I said, "We went to the park and Mackenzie chased squirrels and looked at dogs." Daddy asked, "Did you take our daughter or a dog to the park?" Haha!

Love,

Mom

Bugging Out

Dear Mackenzie,

Today's cute behaviors:

1) You were playing with smalls jars of red chili flakes and zaatar we had on the dining table and when Daddy took them away from you, you put your hands on your hips, stuck your bottom lip out and glared at him. I know you were pouting but it was UH-DORABLE!

2) I was carrying you and saw a spider crawl across the hallway floor. I put you down to get it but you beat me to it--you ran into my room, climbed onto the side of my bed to reach the box of tissues on my nightstand, pulled out a tissue and ran back into the hallway and squished the spider with the tissue. I was impressed, especially since your older siblings freak out and scream when they see the tiniest of bugs. You're so brave!

Love,

Mom