butterfly world.

hope everyone had a good long weekend! we spent our memorial day at butterfly world. if we were back in ny, we would have probably bbqed in our backyard with our family. we really miss everyone back "home" but exploring miami is so much fun and stress free. seeing sophie's face everytime we take her out is priceless.

on an airplane no less.

sophie got her first salon haircut today!!!!! complete with a hair keepsake and certificate! awesome! after the haircut my baby told the hair stylist, "i want make up next". awwwww.

so this is us.

clueless at toys r us. for some reason this is sophie's first time at toys r us. i know!??! just scared that she might want to take all the toys home. but not bad. i was worried for nothing. looks like it's going to be a monthly thing. she ended up getting play-doh. (yikes!)

trip to the pet store.

 

sophie left her little fishie, ponyo in ny, so we promised her that we would get a new one especially after going to the aqaurium over the weekend. luckily we live 5 mins away from petco. they have tons of fish but we decided to go with the betta fish.
a year ago, we bought sophie 4 cychlids and a bottom feeder and for some reason they all ended up floating. so we got one flower horn  fish instead. even though the fish are inexpensive, the actual tank and all the accessories can get a little pricey if you add it all up. so last christmas, j got sophie a gold betta fish. and let me tell you it never dies! and it's so easy to maintain. we change the water once a month and sometimes we even forget to feed her. ooops.
we got ponyo along with the little container (it comes with the rocks and a plastic plant), food and the water conditioner for $35.00. not bad right?
well here in miami, we got blu with everything for only $14.00!! booyah! now sophie got her job back. she loves feeding time!

day at the playground.

these are some of the pix from yesterday. i think the breakfast themed playground is adorable. i forgot to mention on my previous post a trick that i came up with (i think i came up with it ahaha) that helps a lot. the concept of minutes - time out for five minutes, we're leaving in 10 minutes, you know what i'm saying. i just tell sophie "we're leaving in 10 minutes" and then i leave her be, come back and tell her "10 minutes is up, time to go". viola!
now that the discipline issue is over with, there's another new one. well this is more an issue for me. i noticed most of the kids at the playground are boys. nope that's not the issue. sophie is used to that. her cousins in new york are mostly boys and the kids at our ny church are mostly boys too. it's when a girl arrives a the playground, naturally sophie will try to play with her. what do you do when they don't want to play with your child? nothing, you can't do anything. btw, sophie is so cute when she waves and says "hi, i'm sophie, do you want to play??!" that's my baby! anyway, kids are kids. i think other parents know that too. they don't take anything personal. right????
but what if they are rude and unfriendly to your child? now what do you do? i'm talking about a five year old ignoring my daughter's "hi, i'm sophie, do you want to play?' sophie even said "i like you shoes" and then only to receive a rude "no!" along with the hand and sticking her tongue out. like what the..... my heart was crushed.
but anyway, sophie didn't care. that's why i said in the beginning it's not an issue. sophie went back playing with the boys.

diciplining and what really works.

so sophie is all of a sudden three years old. although it's so much easier now, no more potty training, no more lugging around a big diaper bag filled with baby food, milk and diaper, you don't have to watch their every step and all that stuff, i still find myself faced in unfamiliar situations and new challenges.
disciplining a toddler has to be the most challenging and most important phase in a person's growth. i'm talking about my growth. just kidding. not really. for both moms and kids. how in the world do you discipline a child? better yet, your own child.
before anyone thinks sophie is a problem child, i'd like to say for the record that i'm so lucky that she's a good baby and compared to all the stories i hear, i would say she acts like a three year old.
lately, she's been throwing tantrums - crying and screaming until she gets what she wants. i know it's common but not for sophie. i don't know if it's because of all the changes - moving to a different house, not seeing the rest of the family anymore and all that stuff. it started around the time j left (j left new york for miami a week before us).
stuff like that freaks me out. why? if you really think about it, it's really scary for moms. my sis always says, if you can't control them now, wait until they're in their teens. not that i want to be in control or anything but i do want sophie to listen to me.
when i was pregnant, i said to myself, i'll let my baby run wild and free. ahaha. that doesn't sound right. what i mean is to let them be more carefree. discipline by explaining instead of reward-and-punish. i have been but what i didn't include in my "master plan" are the other people. i'll be the first one to admit that sophie is pretty much sick of me by now, because i'm with her 24/7. so naturally, when there's other people around, i won't be her first pick.
so anyway, i've discovered that sophie isn't scared of anything or anyone. she knows all about jesus of course and not so much about "hell" or "not going to heaven" (i grew up so scared about going to hell but then again i grew up scared about a lot of silly things). bottom line - it's so freaking hard to explain the concept of consequences to a toddler. i saw an episode of john and kate + 8 once where if kids didn't finish their food, they'll just let them go hungry until the next meal. like i don't think i can do that. if the kid's hungry, the kid's hungry. right???
i have also tried ignoring her when she's throwing a fit. i hear that a lot. "just ignore her and let her cry". but what if we're at the mall or at the park. 
so anyway i find that the best way is the time out system. now that's makes more sense. actually the combination of time out, ignoring the cry and explaining the consequences of her action. i hate watching sophie cry for 5 mins. but it works!!!!!!!!
every child mom is different i guess. i am not the scary type. i mean i try to be but i'll leave that up to j. he can be the scary parent. ahahaa.
the whole reason behind this post is a result of a good day at the playground. every time we go to this new mall, it's always a battle how to get sophie out of the playground. get her back in her stroller which by the way she hasn't used in so long. the malls here are huge!!!!!! but today was just good.

from florida with love.

yes we've officially relocated to miami! whew. so much to do and so little time. i only have time to update Ayazine so check it out to see what we've been up to.