Daddy Chan and I have been discussing on the "strategy" to handle our "Terrible Twos" boy for months, and suddenly, we started to realize that maybe, just maybe, instead of waiting anxiously for another "
143 days, 23 hours, 25 minutes and 3 seconds"
(refer to Daddy's post about Renzo's "Terrible Twos"), our boy might have grown out of this phase, or at least, making very good progress in growing out of this phase.
Why did we say so? Nowadays we find it much easier to sit down and talk to this little boy face to face, and explain to him what is right and wrong. Quite a number of his bad habits were corrected effortlessly by telling him "Renzo, that's wrong, you should not do it!".
On April 13, we brought Renzo for his first dentist visit and I preempted him a few times about what to expect at the clinic, knowing that most likely he won't be too cooperative. But to our biggest surprise, he had his teeth thoroughly checked and even polished without making any fuss. And the best news from the doctor, is that despite having night feedings with milk bottle, he has no tooth decay and his teeth are in pretty good condition so far. But the dentist did highlight the benefits about weaning him off from milk bottle gradually.
So, the first message I shared with him after the visit was, "Renzo is a big boy now, and you should eat proper meal, instead of waking up for milk at night!". He took it very seriously and had this idea registered into his mind immediately. How did I know? On a few nights when he woke up as usual to request for his milk, he deliberately asked me "Mummy, what can Renzo drink?", or "Mummy, I want that one / the other one (pointing at his milk bottle)". And he just refused to mention the word "MILK", till I said "If you are hungry, you can have your milk". He then gave me a super big sweet smile and still repeated to himself, "Renzo is a big boy, cannot drink milk milk, can only drink water!". Sounds so poor thing right?! Of course he still got his feeding in the end, how to say no to this boy, when he never failed to mention politely "Daddy Mummy I want milk milk please. Thank you Daddy Mummy, 谢谢Daddy Mummy, Gracious!!" the moment he grabbed onto his milk bottle?! I still cannot understand how could he be so logical in the middle of the night and thought about all these while he could barely open his eyes. But one thing for sure, he definitely understands what he supposed to do.
My in laws also commented a few times that Renzo is behaving very well recently. He stopped opening fridge for food everyday after father-in-law explained to him a few times that babies should not open fridge on their own. And in the evenings when mother-in-law needs to leave early for work, he plays his toys quietly while waiting for us to reach home, instead of bugging father-in-law non-stop to play his DVD or give him snacks.
He started eating vegetables again (finally), although we don't know for sure if he accepts all kinds of vegetables or just spinach at the moment. And his 王老师 told my mother-in-law twice last week, that Renzo is the only kid who stayed behind and assisted teachers to keep the toys after playing session. 王老师 was very touched and insisted on carrying Renzo on her knees (as a form of reward I guess) during story telling session with other kids in class.
Are these great signs that the "Terrible Twos" phase is coming to an end sooner than expected? We are not sure, but we definitely feel that Renzo is so much more lovely, adorable, funny, cute and sweet while "Terrible Twos" is not acting up on him =)
P/S: Daddy has mentioned this in his
previous post
"Renzo isn't trying to be defiant or rebellious but merely trying to
express himself with his limited linguistic capability and when he can't
get his message through, he gets frustrated and thus the tantrums"
So I am guessing, maybe, Renzo is growing out of "Terrible Twos" because he's really able to express himself way better than before..
