Little Missy drank her morning and night milk from a cup for the first time last Saturday. At her request mind you. She was thrilled when I bought the cup of her choice the day before. “Now you can drink your milk from a cup, just like kor-kor (big brother),” I psyched told her.
Nice Minnie Mouse cup, isn’t it? My kids are huge Mickey Mouse (the new version of the show) fans. Ok, well technically I didn’t buy the cup as it was a freebie banded to two tubes of Darlie toothpaste BUT I did buy the toothpaste just so she could have her cup. And of course we had to buy another one (of different design) for Hubby-jr…
Anyhoo, with my no.2 most if not all transitions have been a breeze. Little Missy started feeding herself at 2+ (Hubby-jr at 4+). She moved from sleeping in her playpen to a bed not only fuss free but with much excitement (Hubby-jr took some coaxing and a few days) and now ditching a sort of milk bottle to a cup (it took a lot of effort to get Hubby-jr off the bottle!)
Little Missy also goes to pee in the toilet on her own and washes her own hands. In fact most of the time she’d get upset if I try to help. She wants to be independent, to do things like “big kids”, just like kor-kor.
Yes I do think in part it is a result of her personality (read bossy and strong willed). But modeling Hubby-jr’s actions/habits is also a large contributing factor. And from chatting with a lot of fellow moms, wanting to do what the older sibling does is not unique to Little Missy. It is the norm.
A long time ago, someone did say these words to me of which I am discovering to be true.
“Train your no.1 well and it will be easier with the no.2″
I am not saying no.2 will naturally be an easier child to handle. Oh NOoooo! In so many ways Little Missy is a much bigger challenge (again, read bossy, strong willed but that’s a whole other story!). Each child is so different.
BUT
All my effort in training Hubby-jr (whatever I could) is paying off. In some areas as I mentioned above I do not have to train Little Missy, she just models after her brother. For that I am extremely grateful. Parenting is tough enough as it is and anything, ANYTHING that eases the process, however minutely, helps.
