I keep a running list of things on my phone that Lola says daily that I want to post to the blog but it's hard to remember all of them! It's hard to believe she isn't two years old yet - she has such an extensive vocabulary and is so vocal that we constantly have to remind ourselves that she is actually a lot younger than she seems.
She likes our new apartment a lot - mainly because she can run around from one end to the other and has a lot of room to fling her toys, do her painting and can also crawl up and perch on the windowsills of the huge picture windows. Sometimes she will observe our neighbors and comment on their activities, or on the taxis or buses coming up and down the street.
This past week offered up the following cute anecdotes:
Straight Honey
Lola loves sweet things - fruit, raisins, cookies, etc. She knows and loves the idea of ice cream and cake but these are special treats that she gets much more rarely. One thing that she can get relatively easy is honey - and one of her favorite things in the morning is a big scoop of plain yogurt with honey drizzled on top. You can't mix it in though - if she can't see it, she goes berserk and doesn't believe it's actually been included. On one recent morning, Michael asked her, "you want honey with yogurt?" And she replied, "no!" Then Michael asked her, "you just want straight honey?!" And she said, "yes!" Then the next time Michael asked her what she wanted, she said, "straight honey."
Dinnertime Conversations
Lola is very good at ... how to put this - giving people suggestions when she wants them out of the picture or out of her way. This usually happens when said person is inconveniencing her/trying to make her go to sleep/cajoling her to use the potty. She will either just say, "No [insert person's name]" very insistently, or come up with a place for them to go. Last week, Michael and I were catching up over some work drama stuff over dinner one night and talking pretty animatedly without focusing on Lola, though she was sitting in her high chair right between us. She couldn't take it! She really wanted my attention and was trying to show me her toys and have a discussion with me, as she had been waiting for me to come home from work all day, and shouted over us, "Daddy, go to work!"
Problem Solving
Lola loves bananas, among other fruits. Well, last Sunday night we were at the club swimming before dinner when Lola spotted a banana in her backpack and pulled it out triumphantly. I was already in the swimming pool and Michael was getting ready to take her in with him. She lost all interest in swimming and instead insistently ran to me with the banana in hand, pleading with me in Chinese, "Mama peel it open!" We didn't want to ruin her dinner, so I explained that I couldn't do it given I was already in the pool. She kept insisting and when I kept saying I couldn't because I was already in the water and there was no eating in the pool, she said, "Well how about you come out of the pool!"
When we finally caved and let her have a quarter of a banana, she came upon another situation that was not to her liking. She decided she no longer wanted to swim, and would rather go back to the kids' soft playroom. But we explained that they had already closed it. Her solution? "Daddy open the club!"
I tried to dissuade her from using the water sprinklers by the pool because the water was so cold and I didn't want her to be soaked. I told her they were broken. But Michael came by and said they weren't, which immediately prompted Lola to clamber back onto the sprinkler platform, get soaked and then shout to me accusingly, "Mama the sprinklers AREN'T broken!"
She doesn't easily take no for an answer, I will grant her that!
Needs to be Fixed
Lola shows her can do attitude with how much she loves to tinker with and "fix" things - she often insists if something is broken that she (and only she) can fix it. She will declare, "Lola do it!" For example, she fixes the remote control of the TV, fixes the air pump for her basketball, and, two weeks ago, helped "fix" the Ikea shelves that we were putting together for her toy storage unit. This morning when she "fixed" the air pump, she told me she did "a great job fixing it." Ha!
In the most heartbreaking and most adorable incident last week, Lola cut her big toe rather badly on the plastic under our front door. It was a big cut but other than bleeding does not appear to have been broken or jammed. I gave her a video call after the accident and she kept repeating loudly, in Chinese, still somewhat teary-eyed, "Lola broke" or "Lola is broken" (Lola huaile") and then, "Lola needs to be fixed" ("Lola yao xiu"). After a long cuddle with Michael though, she seemed all good.
For someone who likes to fix things though, Lola hates band aids. I think she associates them with shots at the doctors' office. She once saw a band aid on my leg and lost it, crying and trying to get me to remove it. This time, with her cut, we could only get a band aid on Lola's toe by putting it on and then slipping a sock over it so that she couldn't see it.
She likes our new apartment a lot - mainly because she can run around from one end to the other and has a lot of room to fling her toys, do her painting and can also crawl up and perch on the windowsills of the huge picture windows. Sometimes she will observe our neighbors and comment on their activities, or on the taxis or buses coming up and down the street.
This past week offered up the following cute anecdotes:
Straight Honey
Lola loves sweet things - fruit, raisins, cookies, etc. She knows and loves the idea of ice cream and cake but these are special treats that she gets much more rarely. One thing that she can get relatively easy is honey - and one of her favorite things in the morning is a big scoop of plain yogurt with honey drizzled on top. You can't mix it in though - if she can't see it, she goes berserk and doesn't believe it's actually been included. On one recent morning, Michael asked her, "you want honey with yogurt?" And she replied, "no!" Then Michael asked her, "you just want straight honey?!" And she said, "yes!" Then the next time Michael asked her what she wanted, she said, "straight honey."
Dinnertime Conversations
Lola is very good at ... how to put this - giving people suggestions when she wants them out of the picture or out of her way. This usually happens when said person is inconveniencing her/trying to make her go to sleep/cajoling her to use the potty. She will either just say, "No [insert person's name]" very insistently, or come up with a place for them to go. Last week, Michael and I were catching up over some work drama stuff over dinner one night and talking pretty animatedly without focusing on Lola, though she was sitting in her high chair right between us. She couldn't take it! She really wanted my attention and was trying to show me her toys and have a discussion with me, as she had been waiting for me to come home from work all day, and shouted over us, "Daddy, go to work!"
Problem Solving
Lola loves bananas, among other fruits. Well, last Sunday night we were at the club swimming before dinner when Lola spotted a banana in her backpack and pulled it out triumphantly. I was already in the swimming pool and Michael was getting ready to take her in with him. She lost all interest in swimming and instead insistently ran to me with the banana in hand, pleading with me in Chinese, "Mama peel it open!" We didn't want to ruin her dinner, so I explained that I couldn't do it given I was already in the pool. She kept insisting and when I kept saying I couldn't because I was already in the water and there was no eating in the pool, she said, "Well how about you come out of the pool!"
When we finally caved and let her have a quarter of a banana, she came upon another situation that was not to her liking. She decided she no longer wanted to swim, and would rather go back to the kids' soft playroom. But we explained that they had already closed it. Her solution? "Daddy open the club!"
I tried to dissuade her from using the water sprinklers by the pool because the water was so cold and I didn't want her to be soaked. I told her they were broken. But Michael came by and said they weren't, which immediately prompted Lola to clamber back onto the sprinkler platform, get soaked and then shout to me accusingly, "Mama the sprinklers AREN'T broken!"
She doesn't easily take no for an answer, I will grant her that!
Needs to be Fixed
Lola shows her can do attitude with how much she loves to tinker with and "fix" things - she often insists if something is broken that she (and only she) can fix it. She will declare, "Lola do it!" For example, she fixes the remote control of the TV, fixes the air pump for her basketball, and, two weeks ago, helped "fix" the Ikea shelves that we were putting together for her toy storage unit. This morning when she "fixed" the air pump, she told me she did "a great job fixing it." Ha!
In the most heartbreaking and most adorable incident last week, Lola cut her big toe rather badly on the plastic under our front door. It was a big cut but other than bleeding does not appear to have been broken or jammed. I gave her a video call after the accident and she kept repeating loudly, in Chinese, still somewhat teary-eyed, "Lola broke" or "Lola is broken" (Lola huaile") and then, "Lola needs to be fixed" ("Lola yao xiu"). After a long cuddle with Michael though, she seemed all good.
For someone who likes to fix things though, Lola hates band aids. I think she associates them with shots at the doctors' office. She once saw a band aid on my leg and lost it, crying and trying to get me to remove it. This time, with her cut, we could only get a band aid on Lola's toe by putting it on and then slipping a sock over it so that she couldn't see it.
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