3-year old toddlers are...

... more difficult than two-year old toddlers;
... throwing the most terrible tantrums (Terrible Two's got nothing on this!)
... challenging;
... opinionated;
... knows better than us;...

You would think that I a talking about my daughter of 18, but No!
The Toddler is really giving us a hard time!

Maybe it is just the age?
Maybe it is her personality coming through?

Maybe she just needs the stimulation of school? (She is starting at her new school on Thursday! Can't be soon enough!)

And we are struggling with getting her to sleep at night. She is still awake! After a sleep drive, and her dad and me taking turns in bed with her. It s 10:30 pm and she is wide awake...(The effects of the holiday, I know!)

We are back at work tomorrow!

Send in the reinforcements! Please!

I want to make blog posts about my New Year resolutions, and I even want to take a look back at 2011...
As soon as I get some time!


Tell me it is not only our 3-year old who is giving us more grey hair?.

(Photo: Elise du Toit Photography)

The personality of the toddler

The note from the day care states that she is a well-behaved little girl, and that she enjoys the company of the other babies. How much of the behaviour that we see now in the toddler is part of the person that she is?
We are making assumptions about the little people, and I think we sometimes get it wrong. We superimpose our own personality traits on our children, thinking that in some way they are carbon copies of us. But we tend to forget that they are their own individuals from the very beginning. Am I making a correct assessment, or am I over-thinking it again?

Mieka has many quirks and traits. The blog is a way of capturing it.
She seems to be very cautious with regards to new experiences or things. She doesn’t like to rush into things. When we try to push her, we only get loud protests and kicking legs.
She tends to bite on her gums or folding her bottom lip inwards (see photo). Is it a sign of concentration/stress, or is it the teeth really bothering her? I am glad that the day care sees a good little girl. Because we find her constant demands on our attention very exhausting! Does it imply that she is a different person at the day care than she is at home with us?
She frowns easily, but laughs easily as well. But somebody in the family has described her already as a serious little girl. Especially when she concentrates on new experiences. She loves looking at small things and exploring it with her hands. We don’t hear a thing from her when we push her in her pram in the malls, looking at the people and everything around her.
Now she is at her happiest when she is walking, holding on to a finger. The pointy finger is still pointing like a berserk compass, not knowing where north is, and we are able to show her anything. She is easily distracted! (This is not going to last, I hear. Smile)
I hope we will remember how sweet this time is with her, and how she makes us smile countless times during the day. When she laughs, we laugh as well…
Thank you, Mieka, for the joy!