Iris continues to astound us with her developing language skills, memory and fixation on video stories, such as Cinderella. She is echoing more of what we say, and trying to start up "conversation" in a random way. References are hard to put into context. For example at dinnertime, she'll say something about some phrase she heard in the morning. It's touching that she asks for the adult who is absent when she wakes up from sleep in the morning or afternoon-Daddy, Mommy or A-ma.
So, sleep is the topic on my mind these days. We spent a few days in a small town near Yosemite, during which time she didn't get to sleep before 10:30pm; room light on and door wide open. Since coming home, we have weaned her down to a bright night light and door open, going to sleep between 8-9pm. I don't know why she has been so insistent on the light or door. Recently, I learned of some tips on getting children settled and more secure so that they can fall asleep without too much orchestration or prolonging rituals. I really want to try them, but am currently busy with work things.
Finally, her habit is to do a fake cry and protest with whining when she can't get exactly what she wants. These a "minor" temper tantrums, but they seem to be increasing in frequency. We can rely on the fact that "She's a two-year-old', and yet, I wonder what habits she's picking up from us, other children or just extensions of her temperament. She still doesn't have the language to explain well what she wants. She is cute when she uses shortened phrases, like "This?" for "What's this?", or "Daddy doing? for "What's daddy doing?"
Overall, Iris has done well with a trip to AZ in early June, two weeks of Daddy taking her to preschool four mornings per week, a dentist visit when she sat in mom's lap to watch, and her first theater show ("Peter Pan") that happened during her usual nap time. She's healthy, shares a little bit, and continues to like being neat and putting things away....sometimes. In general, we still love it when she yells, "Momma (or Daddy), come here!" The most amazing thing is that it's been nearly 2 years since we traveled to meet Iris. Currently, her province (Gansu) is experiencing flooding with over 1,000 lives lost. How incredibly different our travel and Iris's life may have been had something like that happened two years ago.
As for our families, both grandfathers have had to go to the hospital a few times in the past three month for different reasons. I am thinking a bit selfishly that Iris get more years with them because they are important to Momma and Daddy. They are in their seventies, so their lives have been full. We both hope to live at least that age, and maybe see Iris married with children before we meet our Maker/Creator.
