The Moana Chronicles

(This post is really for my mom- we haven't chatted for a while and I figure she's going into withdrawals not knowing what Moana has been up to so I'm taking a little break from writing about my training/racing for a blog post about Moana...)

I love this stage with Moana. She is just the best right now. And what's not (for me) to like? She's trying to be a little mini me! :)

It's pretty flattering when someone thinks you're so great that they want to be just like you. Maybe that's the secret reason why some of us actually have kids? Ha! I doubt this phase lasts much past toddlerhood so I'll probably eat those words at some point, like when she's a teenager and hates me, but it's pretty fun right now.

Yesterday I went out for a run. She watched me go. When I got home she was wearing her own little Nike running shoes and asking to drink mommy's 'running juice' (my recovery drink).

The run was kinda long and my legs were feeling the pounding so later in the afternoon I took an ice bath. At first she was just watching and helping me fill the tub with ice. Then it started. "I wanna take it OFF!!!" She said, pulling her shirt up over her head... she then removed her shorts and started climbing in the tub. I tried to tell her no, that's it was too cold... that ice baths aren't for babies... but she insisted. She got as far as sitting on the edge of the tub with her feet in before she exclaimed, "OH THAT'S COLD!" and removed her feet. But interestingly, she didn't just let it go. She put her feet back in several more times during the ten minutes I was freezing my legs off to try to be more like her mommy. It was quite funny.

I typically eat salads with chop sticks. I just find it easier than trying to stab spinach leaves with a fork. Thanks to Regina, Moana has her own set of chopsticks, which she uses sometimes when we are at home... but the other night I took her to a local health food store for dinner and she saw a set of wooden chopsticks next to the forks. "I want chopsticks!" She exclaimed. I looked at the food on our plate... lasagna mostly, and thought, there's no way she can eat this with chopsticks, though surely she was going to try! And wouldn't you know it, she would not take a single bite off the fork, but she was surprisingly successful at stabbing flat pieces of pasta with a single wooden stick. She's persistent, that one. And she knows what she wants. I wonder where she gets that?


But she doesn't always think I'm the greatest... Funny story. The other day we went to the playground after I picked her up from day care. She had previously insisted on wearing her purple tutu over her shorts, which to her, looked exactly right. Interestingly, there were a couple other young girls there (6-7 yo) and one of 'em came up and asked me why Moana was wearing a skirt and shorts at the same time? Well, Moana heard her ask that question and immediately and passionately exclaimed, "I WANNA TAKE IT OFF!!" referring to her tutu. Amazing that her peers can already have more influence over her than her mama. I could have told her that tutus don't go over shorts, but that would not have changed her mind. An older girl who she looks up to says it though and immediately she changes her tune! I guess I can be glad that she apparently has a bit of social awareness.

Unfortunately we're in the middle of some sleep issues at the moment. She's napping really well, but regularly waking up with sleep terrors in the very early morning hours. It's horrible to hear your little daughter wailing out in fear, though honestly, she mostly sleeps right through them (if I let her). Most nights I've been jumping up and going in to make sure she's okay. Sometimes I wake her up in the process to snap her out of the bad dream. And I've even brought her into our room to finish off the night's sleep with us. That actually turned out to be a big mistake. Mostly because she just would. not. sleep. in our bed. Must have been the novelty of it all because she always sleeps in her own crib. But in our bed she was just awake and kicking and talking and rolling over and talking some more... touching my face and trying to play. Eventually, after 90 minutes of this in the middle of the night with no sign that she was the least bit tired, I marched her back into her room and put her back in her crib, where she wailed solidly for 30 minutes before finally drifting back to sleep. I was actually okay with listening to that wail, because that wail was just her I'm not getting what I want cry, vs her I'm terrified cry. The problem is that now she knows that if she wails just right, I'll bring her into bed with us. So sometimes now she tries to fake it. I'm smarter than that of course, but that still means there's a good bit of wailing going on while she's testing it out.

I think I've found a decent fix for some of her whining. She resorts to whining quite a bit these days, which I find annoying and don't want to encourage. Mostly I just make sure that she never gets what she wants when she's whining. I point it out to her when she's doing it and give her an alternative. Like when she's whining about not being able to do something, I'll tell her, "Say, 'help, please'." Then she'll immediately change her tone and calmly say "help please" and I'll help her do whatever she needs. So now that she understands the difference between whining and asking for what she wants, I totally poke fun at her whining by mimicking her when she's doing it. It's quite funny and makes her smile and laugh and then she changes her tune.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a 1 year old. It was a big indoor party with tons and tons of toys and other little kids. Moana was actually one of the oldest kids in the room so it was interesting to watch her interact with the littler ones. She was just a complete ball of energy! I don't think I have ever seen her so animated. It was super fun for everyone involved though and of course she especially loved the birthday cake. Oh, she wanted to blow out that candle so badly! They actually lit the single candle several times and let a couple kids who wanted to try to blow it out. Of course Moana wanted to! Super cute to watch her puff her cheeks out and give her full effort.

Last night when I was putting her to bed I was telling her that her birthday is coming up soon. In 10 days she'll be TWO. Wow. So I was showing her how to put two fingers up and teaching her that the answer to the question, "How old are you?" is "two". When I was pretty sure she had it down, I tested it out.

Me: "Moana, how old are you?"
Moana: "Birthday cake!"