The simple happiness

I am happy because:
Tiffany starts eating apple now......
Tiffany starts to like eating apple now......

Back a few months ago, I felt bad about Tiffany not eating apple, not eating strawberry, not eating grape, not eating.... almost any fruit but banana, especially seeing other similar aged kids eating and liking it (even boys!). I don't want Tiffany to miss any GOOD thing in life. I want to do my best to let Tiffany enjoy all GOOD things in life; that's why I bought a big jar of chocolate from Costco. I set the rule to be eating one a day for her forgetting about she is only 2 years old. She likes chocolate too much so she wants more than one a day--who can blame a 2-year old? So the buyer-me was the one to blame, although out of good intention :-). That jar of chocolate ended up being hidden somewhere invisible to Tiffany.

I "blamed" my hubby for Tiffany not eating fruit; you don't like fruit, it's because of you! she inherited it from you!

I kept trying to "lure" Tiffany into eating fruit whenever I am eating and kept failing.....until a few days ago. It started with grape I was eating. I gave one to her, she put it to her mouth and got it out, looked at it and put it back again per my encouragement. And then it all started: she wanted more, ha ha! I found out she doesn't like big grapes, or big things in general. I tried apple the next day, and she was cautious at first--she is a cautious kid, in a very cute way in my eyes. Then I started making those apples into small shapes of apple--square, triangle, rectangle, circle--from a book she read and likes very much. She started putting those little apple shapes into her mouth, one by one and faster and faster. She ate almost half an apple the first time! That made my evening.

Taking care of kids require:

• LOVE
• patience
• wisdom
• problem solving skills, e.g. finding the cause, design the strategy, trials and error, tolerance
• people skills, e.g., understanding other people's pace, habits, tolerance, communicate with people that can't talk much

Tiffany has her own pace doing things; so a reminder is: don't push her too much (even good things) in the name of love! When she is ready, she is ready with enjoyment.