Vivi has the most expressive face and voice. She is saying the most hilarious and adorable things these days and she keeps us on our toes. She is incredibly sweet, but it is becoming more clear by the day that she is extremely strong willed and stubborn. I am happy that she feels comfortable enough in our family to be able to be a brat when she wants to, but I also don't want to encourage it. She is demanding and quite whiny when she doesn't get what she wants the instant she wants it. I don't know what to do about the whining. Stella would stop if I asked her to, but Vivi isn't so easily convinced. It is amazing how fast she can go from furious to delighted. She feels so strongly. I'm feel like I'm starting to meet the girl that survived the orphanage with such sweetness in her heart. She was determined to get through it all and she did.
Sometimes I find it exhausting to be her mom and I will lose my temper a bit. She has to constantly be on the move and always into everything. The other day she opened a bottle of bubble and spilled them everywhere and was playing in them. I had just mopped the floor and I was late. I got pretty annoyed as I cleaned up the mess. But then I remembered how she seems to know when "mommy mad at me" and I didn't want to leave on that note. So I called upstairs to her and told her that I loved her and I was sorry that I yelled about the bubble and that I wasn't mad anymore. She said: "Mommy, I sorry I spilled bubbled on floor." I was so surprised by her apology. I thought it was remarkable.
She is still taking nice long naps and she will sometimes tell me when she wants one. She will try new foods and if she doesn't like them she says "yucky" even if it is something she liked and ate the day before. She is a girl who just knows what she wants and is determined to get it and although it might make it tricky to be her mom sometimes, I know it is going to get her through anything.
She has such a magnetic presence that I hope serves her well and she always uses for the power of good. Everyone is charmed by her wherever we go. She is friendly and talkative and she loves people. She loves adventure and experiences. She is basically the greatest gift ever every single day.
About the time we took these pictures, Vivi started becoming aware of her missing tooth. She didn't understand where it went. She said the tooth fairy came and took it, and I told her that she lost it in China so now she will tell people about her tooth and that she put it under her pillow in China and the tooth fairy came and took it. One day she told us she wanted to find the tooth fairy so she could get her tooth and we told her the fairy is so small we would never find her. I wish I had a true story to tell her about her tooth. I wish I knew why she doesn't have it, just like I wish I knew so many things. But in the end I guess they don't matter. I just hope one day she forgives me for making up the story about the Chinese tooth fairy. :)
