About The Girl

Little Miss Muffin is still our fun loving little girl with some twists! She is keeping us on our toes.

She LOVES sleeping in her big queen bed (our guest room bed...as the cabana came furnished). It is great for us,too as we can relax and read books with her much more comfortably than on the floor or squeezed into a toddler bed that really is only suited for one toddler! She manages to fill it up with lots of company each night...dolls, Barbies, teddy bears.

She is still not potty trained but is feeling a bit more motivated as she really wants to be rewarded with Dora Magic Fairy (saw it here at Myer Dept Store which is like a Macy's for $80 Aus, saw it on Walmart USA for $29.99!) She can not wee all night so I do think it is a matter of will for her. I can't even do that. Seems she has Daddy's big bladder, not my teeny one:)

Muffin plays very well on her own, loves playing with blocks, puzzles, all those lovely Happy Meal ponies and people (Strawberry Shortcake collection), and the Chipmunks...

Preschool. Little Miss so desperately wanted to go and loved it for a while. Like a week or two despite darling little Mikey biting her. Believe me, she is still talking about it and when I go to pick her up it is the first thing she reports to me "Mikey didn't bit me today, Mama!" She has been so dramatic about attending it has been hard for me to want to do this since it is not a necessity in anyway. Wakes up on non-school days saying "I don't want to go to school!" We reduced her to one day a week. I am not sure what she envisioned school to be, but I think this is not it! She has a hang up about not taking her backpack and water bottle so we don't. The one day she does go, she participates in a special "KindaDance" class that I observed once, and is great. Last week she was clinging a bit. I was there for about a half hour or 45 minutes, lugging the big little brother around...then she said "You can go now Mommy." So, I did! Dismissed. I am pretty sure we are going to give this up. I am going to go to a playgroup with both kids, story time at the library and find a music class. Then, I will get a babysitter a few times a month for both of them. It will be less expensive than preschool and less teary...and will allow me a few hours without them both:) Though I admittedly feel a little lost without them!

I am sure some of you(aunties and grandma's) have some strong opinions on this matter. I can only say, we all know she doesn't need it for intellectual growth as I think she really is not being that stimulated there in that way. I recognize playing with her peers is a good thing, but you know,she has a little bit of her mama in her. She is used to being around older kids because of all of her cousins and she is challenged socially with her peers. I can work on that with interactions in playgroup etc. Anyway, we are in until I give notice. I think I am going to do that this week and then we will have two more weeks to go.

What I have not mentioned yet is some nasty little habits she has picked up since going to school...fortunately she was so put off by the biting she is not doing that. But she is spitting (ughh!) and she is hitting. More aggressive in general. The little fellow who bit her, I've witnessed hitting and pushing, but not spitting. When I've mentioned he is adorable, I mean it. Blonde, blue-eyed, cute little nose (we Stewart's really like cute little noses, perhaps because we have them...but little noses are just cute in general, no?) not very verbal...and though she talks a talk. The two of 'um have a natural attraction to one another:) She would do better downstairs with the 3 and 4 year olds, but that potty thing has her stuck upstairs. The attention she gets for spitting has only made it worse,s o now I just tell her it is disgusting and if she would like to do it she can go do it in her room. She doesn't want to go play by herself in her room so it usually stops the behavior. The hitting is another story. The Man saw her hit the new American girl with her Barbie, and she has hit us. Not hard. But it is the idea and the intent and she has hit sweet "baby brova". Hot tempered mama wants to spank her but I know that is not the solution to teach her by striking her. So, I resist and I haven't come up with something that works as effectively as going to to her room to spit! Send me your ideas!

So we are dropping out of "kindy" soon.I think. Try a new routine.

Muffin hs been talking a lot about how much she misses her cousins and has been a better chatter on the phone, FaceTime and Skype recently. Of course, she has talked the most to the special men in her life...her grandfathers. She is still smitten with boys.

When Jake came from the US was visiting,she gave up her room a couple nights. No big deal. She loves sleeping in "the middle" with us. But one night she was wanted to sleep in there with him. And she held his hand at Darling Harbour.

Muffin has enjoyed the company of The Man's coworkers 3 boys, but honestly, I do not think she knows what to make of them since they don't really make over her like she is used to from her cousins. One is older and two are younger than she is, I believe. She hides stuff in her room when they come over. That is funny. Strange stuff! We had a cookout with them over the weekend at the park across the street from them (it has gas grills!). When walking back to the house I told her to hold someone's hand and she gravitated right to the eldest boy. My three year old and the first grader! Note: got her feelings hurt at the park by some older girls (it starts already?!) They told her she wasn't a big "stister" or something. She was in tears. High note: she climbed a tree hanging with the boys for the first time. I knew something was up when I could no longer spy her Princess costume...but never thought she'd be up in a tree (not to high) and requiring help to get down! She played hard there that day and did not eat a bite of dinner in her fun with the boys and the playground. Of course, she ate dessert. I think I might make an effort to drive over to that park..it is not far..if it weren't for the mountains we could walk/stroller...but it is larger and flatter than ours with more to do.

We have been going to the library to get some new materials to read and DVD's. We don't have Barney on tv here so she really enjoyed the DVD's. She still loves Princess movies, but loves Peter Pan and Dumbo a lot. Of course, she has always called Dumbo, "Jumbo", which is his real name and I love that about her. She is so PC and sweet.

After writing this we had an embarrassing incident at the grocery. When we go into the grocery we typically park in the garage, take the travelator and escalator up to the store and when we depart we go down in the elevator with our shopping cart. So, we are waiting for an elevator and one opens up. Inside the elevator is a very tall, large woman. My sweet points and asks, "Mama, why is she soooo big?" She could have meant any number of things. I am not sure. I was too busy scrambling in my mortification! I told her we don't point at people and people are all different shapes and sizes. I sure hope it was less of a sting that I'm overweight and my daughter said this. The woman had already nodded her head in disbelief? disappointment? both? I just looked at her and said "I am sorry". I wish I had said something clever to my child, like, "Wow, she sure is tall, it is very nice to be tall, isn't it?" We were a bit surprised she did this, but never know what will come out of the mouth of babes and still not sure what she meant.

We have a CandyLand cheater in our midst! She always wants to get the ice cream cone card which puts you closest to the end. It is funny.

We have just received her workbook in a package but not gotten back into doing it yet. We have been doing some reading of these leveled books that are Australian. But not doing it regularly and couldn't get Set 3 on our last trip to Big W. We got set 4 and started it since much of it is just words. Every 3 books or so there is a simple story to read. Got to get there this week.She continues to amaze us with what she says and her vocabulary. Also, how she spins some reality into fiction...when she is in imaginary play mode.

Ok, that's the latest on "The Muffin". She is a ray of sunshine in all of this and I try to accentuate the positive, so blessed are we with these sweet bebe's!

Toodles for now!

Val

P.S. The Latest: Must wear Princess costumes everywhere. Often with red or black click clacks and ruffle socks. Today she was wearing a yellow one happily then decided she could not wear yellow and needed pink.I have one pink hanging to dry and one in the wash..Abby Caddabby was on Sesame Street and saved the day. She was wearing blue. So today, outfit number 2, she is now in her American girl tutu with her AG doll matching her, Blue with some pink in the sash! If we go out, after Huckleberry brother's nap and lunch, I am sure this is what she will wear. Guess what? I really don't care! Also, insisted Daddy take us out to dinner since she was all dressed up in tutu the other night.