The big Two-Oh

Yes, Eva turns 20 months old today. David and I can see signs of the two year old coming. Ah...

So, last Thursday I took Eva Christmas shopping with me, and learned an important lesson which I thought I'd share. We went to the mall only briefly, and since they were really cute, thought it'd be fun to get Eva one of the mall-buggies to ride around in. They're lime-green glorified strollers that look like little cars with a steering wheel and everything. Every time Eva turned the wheel, I turned the cart for her in that direction. I think she really believed she was driving. We wobbled and weaved our way around the mall for about half an hour then went to leave. I returned the cart, and told Eva it was time to go now. She said, "NO." I picked her up anyway. She arched her back, kicked her feet and screamed at the top of her lungs, "NO, NO, Down, NO, NO!" Yes, her very first, full-blown, no holding back, temper tantrum. There was nothing I could do, we had to leave. So, I carried a screaming toddler as fast as I could out of the mall, all the time thinking in the back of my head... "Is someone going to think I'm kidnapping this little girl?" It was a scary thought, and one I never anticipated when I began the process of adopting an interacial child, yet there it was. I still haven't processed this thought completely. In any case, my lesson was this: If you don't have time to spend 4 hours in the mall, walk right by the mall buggies and distract your soon-to-be two year old while you're doing it.

Eva had a fantastic Christmas. She got a band set from Granny, lots of clothing and accessories, a leap-frog toy and a brand new play kitchen, complete with a big "little tykes" kitchen, a table and chairs and over 200 pieces of play food and cookery items. I have been told my entire life that children prefer to play with the boxes over the toys... this I anticipated going into my first ever Christmas with a child. In turns out that my daughter--whom the orphanage workers said liked to play with toys, and whom from the first day we've had her has been delighted over toys--could care less about boxes. Yes, Eva liked the toys. She has played with all of them... this morning she fed me a hot dog with strawberry jam on it from her kitchen, has played an entire song on her drum for daddy and has pranced around carrying her new pink purse, from Aunt Kori, slung over her forearm to the delight of all. One point of note, it upsets my daughter when the wrapping paper tears. Yes, she is one of those who have to very neatly disrobe a present without any paper loss in the process. Again, this is not learned from her environment.

On the development front, both of Eva's top eye teeth have poked their way through the surface of her gums. She also, obviously, sees herself as boss of the cats. Yes, Eva makes them get off of chairs, disciplines them for scratching on walls and tells them where they are suppose to sleep and what they are suppose to play with. It's too bad that the cats don't recognize her as boss... at least too bad for Eva.