Sleep problems

This is the worst phase that has been driving me and tim crazy. Luckily it stopped a few months after she turned two. She has not been able to sleep through the night. Well, in the initial months, I fully understand that she needed to be fed in the middle of the night since she was hungry most of the time. Then, one year down the road, she's still getting up, sometimes twice, sometimes thrice. I attributed that to some night terror, and maybe some separation anxiety... then somewhere, in the months of approaching 2 years, she'd suddenly sit herself up in the bed, then tugging and wakening me, luckily to my relieve that she's still within the compond of the king size bed (btw, tim has long been banished to the cold floor since rx learned to flip, turn and kick all over the bed). Her waking episodes were not simple. She would not sleep after consoling with milk or anything, but play until she's exhausted. That would last 1-2 hours before she sleep again and wake up again 1-2 hours later. That time, we had to drove her in the car to get her to sleep fast without having to play!!! Life was hard! I admit we have spoilt her and the sleep problem has became a habit.

Stranger anxiety

She's shy, even until now, whenever she enter the lift with strangers, she'd clutch me tightly and look down. Last time, she used to cry whenever she sees my mother. I used to be very sad then and saw myself as such as failure for not able to bond rx with my mother. At the age of two, I was quite happy that she overcome the stranger anxiety and can enter people's houses during the CNY visits. She's slowly overcoming this fear, I hope...

Separation anxiety and the terrible two's

Her separation anxiety started before she turned one, and after she turned two. The second stage of anxiety when she turned two was most vivid... that was just one or two months back. I still recalled she would cry on top of her voice whenever I leave the house to work. And I called back to check on her to find that she was still crying looking for me. The ma~ma could not take it that she fall ill. She told me that rx cried the whole day and throw tantrums, refuse to eat as well. For that one week I was very upset, I almost thought of giving up my job to look after her full-time. The separation anxiety was accompanied with crankiness. She would throw lots and lots of tantrums. She'd pulled her own hair and bit herself whenever she's upset. She refused to bathe, cried aloud whenever she gets changed, insisted only on butterful clothes and nothing else. Whatever instructions you gave, she'd say NO! She simply resists everything you want to do for her. After a week or two, she toned down, her bad temper somehow subsided, I was happy again. Life is impermanent. wu-chang.