My incredible "Faith"

What an extraordinary child I have! I always tell her that she is the best gift that her father gave me. When she was an baby, I used to ask her, "Who does mommy love most?" and she would pat her own chest. Once she started talking, she would respond, "Faith!"

I know the last blog made being highly sensitive out to be such a negative thing, but it truly isn't. It's just more difficult for a parent with a highly sensitive child, but it's not ever impossible. As they say, the harder the work, the more you reap the benefit. I'm sure "they" don't say it exactly like that, but you get the gist of it.

Faith is truly incredible! I don't know how else to describe her. I know, that I'm a proud parent, but you would just have to meet her to know that she is unique. She has this incredible talent of being able to pick up people's mood, she is so perceptive, caring, thoughtful, kind, intelligent, etc.

She takes in everything around her. Even when you don't think she is listening, she hears you. Most occasions, my husband and I have to spell things out so that she doesn't fully get what we're discussing. Even then, she knows something is up and when ask a million questions.

We have always been able to reason with her since she was a baby. We have always explained everything to her. I used to get stares from strangers when I would give Faith a play by play of our event. It was because we always knew she was listening and taking everything in. As my best friend describes her, "she is very cerebral." It's true, look into her eyes (which are beautiful and by far my favorite physical trait of hers) and you can literally see the wheels turning.

As a baby, it was important that I taught her how to sign, because I needed to give her a way to communicate with me, and indeed she did. At 18 months she was already signing 70 words. This made it a lot easier because she could always sign what she needed and wanted. In that sense, she was always easy. She rarely had tantrums, because through signing, I was always able to give her what she wanted. There wasn't much baby proofing we had to do, because if you told her not to touch something, she didn't. She was and on most occasions, still is, such a great listener.

She is such a gentle soul. I think it helped a lot that she always had Mia around. Mia is my best friend's daughter and they are 4 months apart. You wouldn't know that watching them interact. Faith naturally took on the role of big sister. She is very caring and protective of Mia. I think their relationship has helped her being so sharing as a toddler. She was used to sharing everything, including her momma, with Mia. She has rarely has issues sharing toys with her friends or strangers. We have the occasional moments when it's a really cool toy. However, she is great with taking turns. She knows that after playing with it, she will hand it to the other child and wait patiently to get it back.

Faith is so perceptive with her environment and the people in it. My therapist thinks that she has picked up on how I want her to react to people and that is why she is so concerned, but I truly believe that she is sensitive to other's moods. She always ask if you're okay when she notices that something is wrong. She is more hyper and energetic when she sensing something fun and exciting about to happen. She always knows when to give hugs and kisses, which she doesn't give often so it makes them even more special.

She is extraordinary intelligent. It's not only that she can speak in full and clear sentences, or know all her ABCs and the sounds they make, or count in four languages, or have a wicked memory, but it's the connections she makes. She can take one event and connect it to a completely different circumstance. She continues to stump us with the questions that she ask. I don't know what we're going to do when she gets older because the questions are already too hard for us now. Some times, I just have to tell her, that's just is how it is.

Her creativity never cease to boggle my mind. I would love to take a peek inside her head just for a moment to see all that is going on. Pretend play is her favorite activity. We go on a lot of great adventures. On most occasions it involves her dad and I, but it also includes her friends, some real, but mostly tv characters.

I know they say too much tv is bad, but I swear she has learn so much from it. We usually are watching it together so there is still so much interaction going on. She will ask question about what's going on, or reiterate what just happened, or wonder what will happen next. She also uses the experiences the characters have on the shows to her own life. Any time she encounter something new, she will make reference to the character on which ever particular show who had that same experience. For example, when she first went on a roller coaster ride, she said, it's like Stompy's (for Ni Hao, Kai Lan) roller coaster.

I am truly so proud of her and on most days feel so blessed to be her mommy. Now it's my patience with her sensitivities that I have to work on.