the concept of sharing

noe loves sharing...as long as it's somebody else sharing with her. everything is now "mine" for her. she asks "what's this" and i'll tell her "this is a car" or whatever. she then says "my car". it's actually quite funny and more than a little cute. unfortunately, everything that is hers can not be used by anyone who is not...well, Her. so we've begun learning to share. she understands the concept, really, that sharing is letting others play with your toys or have a bite of your snack, etc. and she does pretty well with this, as long as it's her giving them the item rather than me giving it to someone else. example: mali was wanting to play with noe's purple giraffe rattle (a toy, i might add, that noe hasn't played with in a long time). so i handed it to mali who promptly stuffed it in her mouth. noe cried and said she wanted that giraffe. so i got it back from mali (who really doesn't care as long as she has something else to chew on) and gave it to noe. then i said "noe, mali would like to play with your toy. can you share?". so noe gives it to her sister without a fuss (she in fact puts it in mali's mouth, where everything belongs). this was met with much applause and even a big hug. so she understands this concept. now, however, she expects EVERYONE to share EVERYTHING with her. if she sees alec or fai or mali with something (food, pen, game, dirty dishes, etc.) she starts to whine to me. when i ask what's wrong, she points to the guilty party and says quite clearly and pitifully "share." since we are encouraging her to share, and teach her that sharing is fun, it's hard to, in these moments, deny her whatever it is she's asking for, a fact that she's learning quickly and taking advantage of.

mali is trying really hard to join in the conversations we have around her. she's making a lot of noise, but no real letter sounds yet. she's close, though. she's going to have to speak up and often if she wants to get a word in in this house! with her sister and me talking so much, it's going to be a challenge to be heard. poor daddy will never get any peace and quiet!

mali is also now on a regular sleeping schedule. she goes to bed at around 9 and wakes up around 7. she then takes a short nap at 10am and a longer one at about 1. she then often takes another one around 4 or 5. since her afternoon nap is during noe's nap, too, i have about an hour in the middle of the day that i don't know what to do with myself! it's been so long since i've had free time! i'm sure i'll think of something....

well, my nephew is here and noe and wang cai are very excited about it. we were surprised that noe recognized him. she noe expects him to play with her and carry her instead of going to mommy for that. we have some good pics and vids from the last couple of days.



(My happy little bug!)
(Mali meets the monster. After the initial pleasantries, she proceeded to eat him.) (Mali meets the turtle...it looks sweet here like she is kissing him...but she was actually trying to eat him, too.)
(It was storming outside, so we made popcorn and watched a movie after nap time. Mali is trying to get another bite of the turtle that's sitting beside her chair. noe prefers the popcorn.)(I guess we're done with the popcorn, then?)


(Take a good look at the bow...it never lasts long in her hair.)


(This is why noe really loves her cousin.)