I've already mentioned how quickly Trinity is growing up. It's just so fascinating to see her personality shining through as she does it. One of her favorite words right now is "tattoo". We bought tons of temporary tattoos because she just loves them, and clearly wants to have them on her. She has also requested very specifically on more than one occasion that she have her bellybutton pierced. I think 2 years old is a bit soon, so we'll pass on that for now. So aside from tattoos and body piercings? She loves to sing and dance. I think we definitely have a future musician/dancer/artist/whatever on our hands.

Trinity is a very interesting mix of Andy and me, and we can see it in everything, from the way she plays with her toy kitchenette set to the way that she eats. Eating and sleeping have been my biggest issues over the last number of months. I thought that Trinity had a problem, but now I'm coming to realize that I just didn't know what I was doing and have gotten us into our current mess. As far as eating goes, Trinity was doing great, until she started feeding herself. Then the only thing she would eat was bread, rice, tortillas and the occasional slice of ham while we were shopping at Comercial Mexicana. (Her favorite breakfast food is toast with bovril on it, which she refers to as "poo." I do correct her whenever she calls it that, but I can't help laughing, not being a fan of marmite or bovril myself.) But now I see where the problem is - it is not that she doesn't want to eat, it's that she can't be bothered to feed herself when there is so much going on. If I cut up pieces of omelet, and shove them in her mouth as she passes me by during breakfast, she eats the entire omelet, asking for more after she's finished each piece. The same goes with slices of beef, chunks of chicken, and the occasional piece of vegetable (she is her father's daughter, after all). The other night she ate almost all of my grilled salmon. But if she had the choice, milk alone would sustain her, and it would be injected or fed to her while she slept, so she didn't have to miss anything important wasting her time consuming fuel. This is almost exactly her father's approach to food, although he's learned to enjoy my cooking over the years, and actually takes time out for meals nowadays. We still let Trinity feed herself, but I'm realizing that she eats better if I help.

As far as sleeping goes, we are almost over the trauma that I created by ignoring all the parenting books I read. When Trinity was little, I just couldn't fathom waking her up after nursing her to sleep so that I could put her in her crib and let her cry and finally fall asleep on her own. All that crying and drama just seemed unnecessary. But when the nursing to sleep approach stopped working last November, I realized I had created a bit a of problem. We started a new routine in December with Andy reading to her, but she still wouldn't go off, so he ended up driving her in the car until she dropped off. That started taking forever after a while, so I took over again in February, after she had been weaned, and after she read a bit with Andy, I would lay down with her on the day bed until she fell asleep. It took a while, but we finally got fed up with all the effort, and gave in to the "cry it out method." The first night didn't go so well. Trinity cried up a storm for the entire 3 minutes I was out of the room each time I left, until the 4th time I was out and she threw up all over her bed. The next two nights didn't involve quite as much tears, drama or vomit, but since then, it's been up and down (with several more vomit incidents). However, last night Andy and I went out to dinner and left the babysitter alone to put her to bed, and Trinity didn't cry at all. And the previous 2 nights I had put her in her crib with Teddy and she said "no cry" and I left, and she fell asleep quietly. Phew!

So in spite of me having no idea how to be a proper parent, Trinity seems to be overcoming the hurdles and learning how to eat and sleep as she's growing up. Thank goodness! I thought for sure I had screwed her up for good, but I suppose children are designed to be more resilient than that.

As Trinity's birthday approaches, I'm having loads of fun organizing her party and getting all the party supplies lined up, but I'm sure if I just gave her a bunch of temporary tattoos and some toast with bovril on it, she'd be happy enough. Maybe I did screw her up a bit after all!

I know everyone goes on and on about how quickly their kids grow up, but the amazing thing is that it literally happens in huge leaps and bounds. We noticed it when Trinity went from being a baby to a toddler, mainly because it happened right when she started to walk. Literally overnight. One day she was a floor-bound baby, the next day she was walking and a toddler. And now we understand the term toddler, because they truly toddle about when they are first learning to walk. What has just recently shocked me though, is that Trinity is no longer a toddler - she is quickly becoming a little girl, and I don't really know when it happened. Our friend Sabrina pointed it out the other day, "isn't it interesting how Trinity and Ginger are little girls now?" and wow - that's when I realized it was true. She doesn't really have any more baby fat (other than the cute tummy pooch) and her legs are these beautiful, sculpted muscular things that are just a smaller version of a woman's legs. Trinity has mastered the walking thing to the point that she runs, jumps, spins, spends hours just walking on her tippy-toes, spends a fair amount of time only walking backwards or sideways, and spends a few minutes each day nursing skinned knees because she pushed it too far.

Her changes are happening rapidly in other areas too. One day we were swimming at Hotel Irma with Ginger, Maya and Sabrina. Trinity was doing her usual thing of jumping into the water into my waiting hands. Ginger put on some water wings, flung herself in the water and started swimming about on her own. The next day when Trinity and I were at Comercial Mexicana, she saw a package of water wings, pointed them out, so I bought them. The next time we went swimming, it took all of one or two jumps into the water before she realized that she could be totally independent of me, and could swim around just like Ginger. Now our Sunday family beach trips have moved away from the baby pool and into the grown-up pool so she can jump and swim with more ease.

I guess what it is is that she's paying attention to what's around her, and then tries to copy it. She saw the tail end of an episode of Gray's Anatomy last week (because I was watching it during her nap) and the very next day I walked in on her with the babysitter, Denise, laying on the floor, having her tummy examined by Dr. Trinity and her stethoscope. Upon a second glance, I saw that she was using Bijou's old cat collar, but it was obvious what she was trying to do. (It might be time to get her a toy medical kit.) She's also really absorbing all the educational toys we have around the house. Her favorite thing lately is to try and sing along to the alphabet song, and when daddy writes letters on her chalkboard table, she names the letter and tries to sound out the word. So far she's working on cat, moon, pool and mummy, but when she sees the letter, she knows it and knows the sound it makes. Is that normal? She's only going to be 2 years old in a few weeks...Andy reckons that she'll be actually reading by 2 1/2 at this rate. Well, if that's true, we'll need to get some more books. I guess it's time for an amazon order.

Anyway, I'm happy to join the ranks of parents that are amazed by the pace with which their children learn and grow. It is so fascinating watching her enthusiasm for everything she learns and encounters and it makes life just a bit more exciting for us too.