What will I do without Dr. Karp and ice packs?

Dr. Harvey Karp said that toddlers acting out when their mommies (yes, mommies, not daddies) are around is the ultimate form of flattery. I remember he made an explanation as to why (and it made sense!), but totally forgot the moment my 1 1/2 refuses to go to sleep when Mommy is in the room.

At one and half, my little Xofia is beginning to be a handful. I think she forgot how to walk, she's running all the time. She has mastered throwing things at a precision that everytime she'd successfully hit her target, she'd beam with pride, clap her hands, say "bub" (her version of "good job"), and look around for a nod of approval. Her glowing pride will most definitely stop glowing when she'd see my serious, upset face. I then proceeded to lecture in toddler-ese how we don't throw things in a civilized world.

With eyes almost filled with tears but refusing to let herself cry, she'd walk away with shoulders down, and observe me from a distance. If a glance in the next minute is met with a neutral face, she'd let out the cutest smile and who am I to resist that. The moment I curve my lips into a smile, she'd come running to hug me.

Sometimes, my Harvey-Karp Method makes me feel like she's the grownup and I'm the baby. Those moments that she'd look at me about to cry, I have to stop myself from saying sorry for getting upset, that it was nothing what she did.

I just hope she remembers all those in the next 5 minutes before she rolled to the edge of the bed despite my stern warnings, and in a blink of an eye, hit her head on the floor and got a major boo-boo.

Thank God for ice packs!