New waiters and waitresses spend their first few nights at a restaurant "trailing" a more experienced one; following along to learn what to expect and how to deal with it.
I spent Friday trailing Clare, a friend with a 9 month old and a 2 year old to get a sense of what life is like with a two year old. I learned the following:
1) Two year olds are really fast!
2) Plan any outings with the location of subway elevators in mind. Some have them, some don't and if they don't, you have to schlep both child and stroller up and down many stairs to get to where you want to go.
3) Buy really light stroller with shoulder strap just in case you need to go somewhere on the subway and there are no elevators.
4) Visit the drum museum - they are allowed to touch things and be as loud as they want!!!
5) They love rice balls!!! - these are sticky rice wrapped in seaweed and make a great (if slightly messy) snack!! All the kids here eat them.
6) Wear sensible shoes!!!
7) Buy a knapsack so your bag doesn't slide off your shoulder and hit said two year old in the head.
8) Learn the words to "Old McDonald" - 2 year olds love saying the animal noises and it diverts their attention if they are starting to get bored (or when they get hit in the head with bag - or even worse - fall down and have big grownup fall on top of them because they were holding big grownup's hand and big grownup got off balance when they fell down because big grownup had many bags in her hand!!).
9) Japanese people love babies!!!!
10) Watching a two year old explore the world is priceless!!
2 comments:
Adopting a two year old was the best thing I ever did. My daughter is from Guilin and is, as your daughter, a beauty. Hope you don't mind the sharing but here are a couple of things that worked really well for me. Number 1 because the girls are older they know their Chinese name. I called my daughter by her Chinese name (Feifei) for about six months after I brought her home and then slowly added in the name I had chosen for her and she became Molly Fei. Slowly I dropped the fei and she became Molly though I must admit that to this day, and she is now 10, I still call her Fei from time to time. I needed to remember that I was completly up ending her world and I couldn't take her identity away from her too. It's worked out well. The info you get from your agency may say that your daughter is toilet trained...that's just semantics...bring packs of pull-ups and use them or you might be suprised by a quick little squat in the hotel room corner as I was. I also brought four different sizes of shoes with me and you might want to do the same thing. Ignore western standards for sizing as it's clear that you're little beauty is a peanut. Think small when it comes to shoes and clothes. My daugher can still wear a Talbots kids size five skirt and she eats like a horse. Don't forget the crayons, bubbles and soft stuffed animals..I brought beanie babies with me and she loved them....Congratulations Mama you are in for the time of your life! Best wishes, Patti
Great tips Patti - thanks for taking the time to write.
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