Standoffs

We wrote in a Melaka post not too long ago that Hannah is still a relatively compliant girl. She’s normally still very willing to listen, accepting of our instructions, and her tantrums – if any at all – rarely last more than a few minutes. Even then, we’re starting to notice that she’s also become more ever so slightly requiring more persuasion and reasoning before she gets a move on. There are small signs of this, the most evident one our girl asking us “Why?” when we for example tell her she can only watch one and not two episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Something a little different happened early this morning though. Hannah and Mommy got into a tiff while at her brushing teeth routine. Hannah normally rinses four times and does her own counting, and not always consistently. When Ling tried to help count for her, Hannah got into a fit and said “Mommy, you cannot tell me what to do!” That response startled Ling, and she had to firmly tell Hannah that was uncalled for. As usual, Hannah was in tears and seemed to recognize that she’d done something wrong and upset Mommy terrifically.

On the upside, we noticed that Hannah has also become spontaneous in her demonstrations of affection, giving us hugs and telling us “I love you Daddy Mommy!” She’d run up to Mommy and say “I want to hug you”, and if the hug isn’t long enough for her, she’d say so. Or when she sometimes climbs up to sit next to me on the soft, hold my arm tightly and rest herself on my shoulder.

Growing up, and with the 20mm f1.7.
Growing up, and with the 20mm f1.7.

Still, it does seem to signify that as parents, we’ll need to up our game and continue to adjust our parenting behaviors and expectations. I’m hoping at least the new baby will at least still be as mild-mannered as Hannah is!