Taran's first performance

I seem to say this every week but Tarana IS growing up just too quickly. There was a time when I always got a hug and a kiss when I asked for them but she has already learnt to say 'no, not right now'! She isn't even two. I can see so much of me in Tarana though and that is really not a good thing – she is pretty stubborn. The things she is really stubborn about at the moment are wanting to eat in the kitchen and not at the table (she'll miss her meal but not eat if I sit her at the table), and wanting to brush her own teeth – which involves licking the paste and not cleaning the teeth. We often end up giving in to her demand to eat in the kitchen while Robin has taken on the task of brushing her teeth as I can't bear brushing her teeth while she cries and yells. She is quick to feel hurt – a slightly firm 'no' results in an endless stream of tears. She is also loud and noisy -just like her mother as Robin would say - and regularly makes up silly songs about everyone and everything around the house.

The one difference between T and me seems to be that I absolutely love performances and she seems not too. I enjoy the little anxiety before stepping up on stage and the adrenalin rush that comes the moment one spots the audience. Well, T is not even two and it is probably not fair to judge her on her first performance, which was absolutely adorable (so says the slightly biased mother) but a total disaster! It was at her school - a Christmas concert where each class, starting with T's class of six two-year olds, sang a bunch of songs. As soon as she saw me in the audience she started crying. I had to kneel by her side on stage the entire time but she didnt hum a single word from any song or rhyme. In fact there were moments where she came and stood in front of me, staring me in the eyes with her back to the audience, and kept chanting 'hello mamma!'