Sophie at 2
Sophie at 2 is
- gregarious
She absolutely adores company and of course the attention that comes with it. She is shy at first but once familiar, she is totally entertaining – talking, repeating strange things that people ask her to say like kachiangputeh (!), singing etc… She is a spontaneous singer in the car, shower and when she is bored kind of person, like me when I was younger.
- precocious
I stole this word from Wanz – that’s how she described Sophie in her blog and I had to look up what it meant exactly. I’ve been looking for words to describe Sophie and this is pretty close!
Our little one is smart - not in the sense that she knows her ABCs (everything is still J or A to her, gua gua) or is some kind of super power flash card baby BUT……….. you can tell when you interact with her. She’s definitely not blur and unresponsive, unless that is exactly what she wants to be at that time. Yes, our little is a great actress with her exaggerated facial expressions and all – surprised look, angry look, fold arms, roll eyes, yep yep… she’s all done it. She can be quite kua zhang (exaggerated) in her expressions.
And of course, her ability to speak and converse is great help for blur mommy me, God knows.
June teased that the reason why Sophie had to speak so early is because I can’t "hear" her! She’ll be like complaining about something and I’ll be about my own things until I finally realised what she’s trying to say – e.g she dropped her umbrella at the zoo and was trying to tell me but I didn’t realise it until a while later, a long long while later. The other time in Shanghai, she was crying and we thought she was just being fussy BUT actually she was falling off the Baby Bjorn. Er….. ya, that’s why our little one had to fast learn to SPEAK in PROPER SENTENCES or else she’s not going to get anything off us. So poor thing! 
- gentle
Sophie loves dolls and babies. She likes to stroke babies, hold their hands, call their names and talk to them. I think given a chance, she’ll want to cuddle them.
When she’s at the toy shop, she loves to touch the face of every doll in there and say hello.
Being gentle, Sophie can be quite timid and sensitive too. She’s not fond of slides, quick moving toy cars/rides, etc. Need to go slow with her.
- at the "No" stage
Everything is "No no no" by reflex. I’m serious – by reflex. Sometimes she says no just for the sake of it. Drives me nuts and some days can be REAL bad. But talking and giving her time outs seem to work. She’s just trying to test her boundaries and exercise her rights. Can’t wait for her to get over this stage…….. Oh…. but according to experienced mothers, it just gets to another stage! Apparently the "terrible twos" never end! They are just trying to be humans. No different from our two fav Adam and Eve – "Don’t eat this!" says the Creator, "Er the snake says it’s ok leh, let’s eat lah." says the creation. Sigh…
Sophie’s pretty attuned so I avoid lying and making empty promises when giving alternatives. It doesn’t work – it’ll just bounce back at me! This girl has an elephant’s memory. Sometimes I wished she was a bit more blur.
She REALLY REALLY brings a lot of joy to our lives because of who she is. Some days she can really test my patience of which I have very little when it comes to poor attitude and whining. I have no problem wiping after her pee or self feeding episodes BUT when she starts whine or enter into her serious of "No"s, it can really drive me up the wall. All these esp since I’m a stay home mum BUT I can’t imagine life without her. She’s such a joy to hang out with and I love how she’s brought much joy to the people around us.
I pray that she will be a blessing wherever she goes.