For my frequent blog readers, it is no secret how much I adore my little makulit… and how much I get tired chasing her lately. And I can’t understand how in the world, this little marionette turned us, her dear parents, into her dummies. Oh yes. In our house she IS the boss. But I am thankful. I have learned so much from her. Things I never imagine a two year old can teach me, her own mother.
LOVE is spelled as T-I-M-E. And that’s the way it’s meant to be. We learned this “earworm” (in other words, a Last Song Syndrome-song) via Hi 5, which, she religiously watches over at Disney Junior. She’s memorized the whole song, albeit her gibberish words.
Time, for Aria is synonymous to love. Living in a working parents’ household, Aria wants ALL our time for her. We pity her every crying time as we leave the doorstep for another long working day. Much as we try to maximize our weekends, more often than not, we also have work or other social engagements that we have to attend. That’s why I make it a point to go home during lunch to steal 30 minutes of so of Aria time. I like it that my work is ten minutes away from home! We nurse, cuddle, play, eat, everything! In the morning and evening, she plays with Daddy for a few minutes before waking up and going to sleep. Precious times indeed which not any of our jobs can pay off!
LESS is MORE. Aria doesn’t go to toddler school yet. And I can conclude we don’t have any plans of sending her to one. So we invested on homeschooling her. We bought iPad apps, books, toys, which have helped us one way or the other and have contributed to her vast vocabulary at 25 months.
We tend to “over-teach” Aria that she gets bored. So she controls us. Yeah. She shoos away our hands to stop lesson time cos she wants to sleep or play or eat. So now we learned to limit teaching time. Actually, there is no fixed time unlike before–three times a day every day. But amazing how she absorbs things, even when she hears or learns it only once!
Strengthen relationships. Admittedly, it is only now that my husband and I have a daughter of our own that we build, nurture, and keep relationships with our families, extended families, close friends, etc. When we can, the family of three attends parties, get-togethers, reunions, or sometimes we create an occasion just to be with our loved ones, no matter how much we’ll be spending on food. Yes, sometimes we spend more in food — GOOD food — when we have gatherings! Good company deserves good food, don’t they?
We create occasions, like the eve of Aria’s birthday, just to be together.
She’s JUST two, they would say. She will not remember anything. But I will kill myself knowing I didn’t get to build as much memories as I can while she’s young, no matter how young. And that’s what I’ll be working on–spending more time without compromising quality and building the relationship strong as a rock.
~ Touringkitty