Toddler’s first time attending a wedding reception

22 months, 3 weeks old: 

• Aug 4:  Tried to put bb down for a nap today and a little annoyed at our routine has been wrecked because we all have different styles of putting her to sleep.  She had it down pat with me leaving her room after playing with her and her doll.  But now she wants me to lay down with her like how grandma and DH does.  I’m not getting into that long-winded routine with her. 😒 Ever since I got sick and bb has been looked mostly after by grandma and DH, she hasn’t had a consistent person putting her down for a nap and it shows.
• Aug 9: This week, bb has been making these ridiculous-looking “stare” faces.  She points her head down and then looks up at us with these mischievous eyes and smiles.  She keeps doing it because she sees us laugh and our reaction to it.  We definitely have to be careful on how we react to her behaviours because it can fuel or stop it.
• Just this week, she also turned the doorknob to her bedroom for the first time.  I heard DH react to it but he shouldn’t have.  Once you make a fuss about something, toddlers will do it more and more.  It’s hard to stay calm when in the moment, but it’s crucial to ensuring that bad behaviour stops (or good behaviour continues).  It’s like training animals (thank you animal psychology in university, one of my favourite courses).
• Bb loves eating fresh corn this week.  She finished at least two or three small pieces of corn during dinner time.  She is pretty good at holding the corn and biting through the corn all around too.  She can suck the juice from the kernels too:
• This week, bb has been preferring to sit next to me at the dinner table and not at her high chair or booster.  She can sit on a normal chair (just barely reaching the table) — mostly though because she refuses to sit anywhere else.
• Bb has been helping grandma peel vegetables in the kitchen (by help, I mean she watches from her learning tower).  She also enjoys watching grandma wash vegetables or dishes in the sink too.  It’s good skills for her to learn.  Practical skills a la Montessori style.
•  While bathing this week, bb suddenly developed a habit of using the washcloth to wash her nether regions.  It was really amusing for DH and I to see because she looked like an adult doing it lol…
• DH was wetting her hair a bit during bathtime and I took that opportunity to finally clutch the wet strands on her bangs to chop them off.  Finally!  Her last haircut was in April and we’re already in August.  Her bangs have been getting long and getting in her face.  To my surprise, bb was willing to let me cut her bangs too, section by section.  It was easy to cut them this way since her hair was wet and I could cut it by section by holding it.
•  I cut her hair in two nights because I didn’t want to cut too much at one time.  She was okay with it both nights and I’m glad.  Her new bangs may be a little short this time, but this means it’ll be a while before her next cut.  It also helps when her hat is on — her hair is short enough that it won’t cover or touch her eyes.  Bb looks younger and cuter with her shorter bangs too lol.  It’s almost like a mushroom cut.
•  DH and I were able to escape and attend my first media tasting event since the pandemic.  I’ve been to the Taste of St. Lawrence walking tour event for two years prior.  Getting to attend again this year was such a pleasure.
•  Aug 7:  Bb attended her very first wedding as a guest!  My high school friend had a wedding lunch reception and bb behaved pretty well for the most part.  We arrived early (in case she refused to get into the car seat) and tired her out by walking around the venue before the actual lunch began.  By that point, she was tired enough to get into her booster without complaint and eat.  (We had trouble getting her into the desired outfit that morning.  She wouldn’t wear what we wanted her to.  This meant no dress fit for a wedding guest.  She ended up wearing a nice tunic though.  Luckily, she was fine to wear sandals for the first time (thanks to her aunt for lending us some fancy footwear for her first wedding attendance).
• Bb wasn’t completely comfortable until about an hour into the event (as usual), but she was better than expected.  It could have been worse and she could have refused to even get into her booster.  Bb enjoyed eating the bread from the bread basket, the feta cheese from the Mediterranean salad, the butternut soup, and the fries from the kids’ meal (chicken fingers and fries).
• Bb actually looked into the camera when we were at the photobooth!
• She was intrigued at watching the older toddlers and kids run around and dance on the dance floor.  At certain points, she looked like she wanted to join them but resisted from doing so.  It reminded me of another time when she saw other kids running around too and smiled and wanted to get involved but didn’t.
• When we were taking photos at the fountain, bb said “yau wing chi” (swimming pool) even though we haven’t taken her to one yet.  She knows what it is from the TV show that shows people swimming 😂
• We were also able to visit a friend and her new-ish baby boy.  Bb wasn’t in the best mood and didn’t make much eye contact or want to interact unfortunately.  This was probably the rare times she’s seen a 2-ish month old baby.
• When we left, bb again refused to get into the car seat.  We had to let her walk around and entice her with blueberries and songs from DH’s phone for her to get in.  (The phone was a bad idea though because the next day she really wanted to watch more music videos but of course we didn’t want that to become a habit.)
• Aug 8:  Bb did tai chi with grandma!  She followed the arm movements but didn’t have much staying power.  She got bored about 10 minutes into it lol.
• Aug 9:  Picked up some items from Facebook marketplace and also visited a new park!  It’s called “Headwaters Community Park” and contains three play structures for different levels of play!  One smaller one is meant for 2 to 5 year olds, one is intermediate-sized, and one is very high and tall meant for older kids.  The entire playground had clean sand.  There were swings, a teeter-totter, a merry-go-around, lots of benches for sitting, and a gazebo with picnic tables.  There were also two porta-potties too.  There was a tennis court, basketball court, and apparently a trail nearby too.  What a gem of a park to discover!
• Bb dove straight into it and rode the plastic dinosaur figure.  The small play structure was small enough for bb to play on it without much supervision or assistance.  Everything was at her height and level!  She hid behind my knee and clutched on to me when we saw a similar-aged toddler enter the park and I was talking to her dad.  Bb needs to see more people and socialize.
• The medium-sized play structure had tunnels too to walk through and crawl through.  It was the first time for bb to play in such tunnels.  She needs modelling though in order to know how to play in them.
• We waited too long to record her saying something and now she actually says it properly instead of the “baby way!” 😂😭 I always used to ask her “Did you have fun?” And she would reply “ho nan” instead of “ho wan” with a W sound.  Now, she learned to correct herself and says “ho wan”!  We missed the opportunity to record it.  She said it so cutely too.  DH and I laughed about whether we should teach her the incorrect way again just to get it on camera. 😂😂
• It’s just like when she learned how to correctly say “potatoes”.
• She still says the incorrect way for “teddy bear”.  She says “hung hung” instead of the correct “hung yun”.
• This past week, my steno jobs have all cancelled.  In a way, it’s been a great thing because I’ve been able to focus 100% on bb again.  It’s nice to play with her and absorb all her toddlerness and how little she is right now.  I do need my balance between work and taking care of her, but this has been a great week to remember how to be a full-time mom again.  It really is so hard to balance me time/work and childrearing.  I don’t want to miss a single thing about her growth, but I need to keep my own balance too.
• Aug 10:  DH and I both noticed that bb has gotten a little chubbier this week.  I noticed her cheeks are puffier while DH noticed that she has a slight double chin when looking at her from below.  Yay!  She doesn’t seem like she’s gained weight from just looking at her when she’s taking a bath though.  She’s quite petite and slim.  Also, we were able to weigh her recently.  She is 26 pounds!
• DH says it’s getting heavy to carry her.
• Bb has been like a parrot, repeating what we say and sometimes saying things of her own clearly.  When she does repeat after us, I sometimes think she actually understands us but it’s just her repeating everything she hears lol.  She does understand a lot though, but she’s still learning so much.  Can’t believe she will be two years old next month!!
• She likes holding my hand when we go out for our after-dinner walks.  She’s in the stroller and she likes to hold my hand.  She doesn’t like holding my hand when we’re at home but she is fine to do it in her stroller lol…
• We tried to change up her routine today to see if she can slowly sleep earlier.  When she woke up for drink/water at 6:30 a.m., DH turned off the white noise and let her wake up as normal and ate breakfast.  Grandma took her out to the park to play as usual and bb was knackered by noon and slept so quickly by 2 p.m.  We let her sleep for almost three hours.  She still went to bed at around 10 tonight, but maybe this is the key to helping her sleep earlier..   We’ll see.