The Many Faces of Mia ~ Photo Heavy

On Thursday night, I was watching Rush Hour (for the 900th time) and Mia brought me her sister's camera, climbed in my lap, and wanted me to take pictures of her. (A model to be I tell you!!!) So, here's what I took. Enjoy!

Little Southern Comforts (no not the drink)

I do believe my Mia is officially a Southern Gal! I had my suspicions that she'd acclimate to our Southern charm with no problems when we first brought her home and she pronounced Elmo as Ahl-moe. Her latest thing now is the word "honey" in addressing someone. If she wants you to come to where she is she'll say, "come here honey", or "oh, honey! what's matter?". One of my favorites is if something breaks or she sees someone fall down she says "Oh, dear, oh dear!" She also has the deep sigh of exasperation down pat, along with the slow upward eyeroll.

We've been having conversations (as best as you can with a three-year-old) about dolls lately. I personally cannot stand the Bratz doll and I think they are the truly a horrid example of what our culture is trying to force on our little girls. Anyway, I won't get into that now... But, Mia continually says, "mommy don't like Bratz" and I don't know, maybe she's heard me say it at sometime but she then follows it up with, "it just reh-dik-a-lus" (ridiculous) in her slow drawn out Southern accent. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

Here's some pics taken this past year of my little Southern Gal.




(Trying to figure out how to do the "church and the steeple"

New and not-so-improved Mia

Mia has had a coming into her own since she's started pre-school. I must say that overall it has been a wonderful experience with some very minor and completely normal attachment issues that quickly resolved as she became used to the new routine.

To give a quick setup so you can follow along, the children in her pre-school class are given a ranking Green or Yellow or Red each day. If the child "stays on Green" by the end of the day they can choose two prizes when its time to leave, Yellow one prize, and Red no prize. Mia has "been on Green" every day of preschool, until this week.

Monday, Mia was put on Yellow. She refused to obey the teachers when it was time to leave the playground. When it was time to line up to go in, Mia ran the other direction and absolutely refused to line up to go back inside. The teachers had to start taking the children in before Mia decided to go too. (Just a note, the teachers weren't going to leave her out there. They were hoping by her seeing that the other kids were leaving that it would prompt her to get into the line too. It worked.) Because of her willful disobedience she only got to choose one prize at the end of the day.

Tuesday, she escalated to Red. Not only did she refuse to do what was asked of her after the frequent requests to do as the rest of the class was doing, but she took it further on the playground. Another little girl was minding her own business and playing in a toddler car and Mia decided it was her turn. Mia physically pushed the little girl not only out of the car but also kept pushing until the little girl was down on the ground. It ended in the little girl screaming and crying so hard that she couldn't tell the teachers exactly how badly she was hurt. The 'funny' thing was that when the teachers asked Mia what she'd done she just stood there stone faced. Kimberlee witnessed it too, but refused to talk until she got home and tried to tell her mommy, "Mia push down, hurt her and her cry".

Well, today, she did alright. She stayed on Green but the teachers reported that she refused to play with anyone, and even yelled at Kimberlee when Kimberlee tried to play with her. Her teachers also said that Mia has decided that being Line-leader is a joke and too short in comparison to being Bible Helper. Mia has figured out that Line-leader only last a few short moments, no one really pays any attention to the Line-leader, and it's just not all that fun or important. But Bible Helper is longer and has more duties. As Bible Helper she gets to hold the Bible up before the class as the teacher tells the story, gets to lead the class in song, and recite the Bible verse. Mia is ALL about being in front of the class and doing whatever the teacher is doing. (When I take her to the library she picks out a book, climbs to the top of the little stage area, and "reads" the book from the stage to, who I can only guess, are imaginary listeners seated below the stage.)

I'm so taken back by all this. Mia was the quiet child. Yeah, she could be stubborn at home at times but out in public, or in a group, she was so compliant, quiet, and sweet. Not anymore. She is standing up for herself, being assertive, and figuring out what things she likes and doesn't like. That's a great thing, as long as she doesn't harm other kids and she does what the teachers ask of her.

Her biggest struggle at school, since she's begun, is sharing. Here at home she really doesn't have to worry about sharing since her siblings are so much older. When she has friends over, she plays great. When she's at Kimberlee's house she does okay (sometimes there are some spats). But at school the closest to sharing that she gets is maybe allowing another child (unless its Kimberlee who apparently has special privileges) to sit near her with their own toy. It's even gotten so bad now that yesterday her Daddy was kidding with her and asked her to share some of her goldfish crackers with him. She threw the bowl down and started pitching a fit ~ and he was just playing with her.

I know the majority of this is that she is three-years-old. That alone explains a great deal of it. But, I also think that she's a little confused. At the orphanage, they had no toys, nothing to claim as their own. When they did get some thing they guarded it profusely, until ultimately it was taken to never be seen again. Now, here at home, she doesn't have anything that she needs to share. Every toy here is hers. When other kids come over, she knows the toys her friends are playing with are hers and aren't going anywhere. She's comfortable with that. At Kimberlee's house she knows she's at Kimberlee's and everything there is for Kimberlee just like the things at Mia's home are for Mia. The same when she goes to other friends homes. But, at the pre-school, I can't help but wonder if it's the orphanage thing again. I'm not sure she understands that the toys there belong to the school and not any one child. I don't know, just a speculation.

My concern is how to make sure she does not turn into a full-blown brat. I don't want to feed into this behavior. I've talked with D who keeps her on Thursdays. She's going to try to make some sharing scenarios with Mia. Since the behavior really only happens during pre-school, I'm not too sure how to be a part of the fix.

Any suggestions...