Tomboy Mio

Mio is definitely not the girly girl I imagined our daughter to be.

I thought that she might share my love for dresses and accessories, but she puts up a fight when I try to dress her up in sweet little frocks (but seems to be fine with comfy sweatpants and hoodies), and she will rip out hair clips and headbands moments after I put them on her head.

Developmentally, she is also more of a boy than a girl. They say “girls are talkers, boys are walkers,” and it’s generally true. A lot of parents I speak to say that boys typically hit their physical developmental milestones with gross motor skills earlier than girls, like crawling and walking, while girls are more likely to be better with their fine motor skills (such as language and social skills) earlier on. Mio is an exception, as she’s been pretty early in major physical milestones like rolling over, crawling, standing, and then being able to walk at 10 months old. But she doesn’t have much of a vocabulary yet — she said “Mumma” a couple times months ago but hasn’t uttered it since, and will sometimes whisper “wan wan” (the Japanese baby word for “dog”, or the sound of barking) when she hears a dog, “bye bye” when she waves goodbye, and “pai pai” for when she wants milk (probably derived from “oppai,” Japanese for breastmilk). She says “Dada” with some frequency, but not necessarily directed at Dan but more as babbling when she’s playing. They say that children raised in a bilingual environment tend to start talking later, which may be the reason she’s not very articulate yet. We’re not worried and are happy to let Mio develop at her own pace, as long as she is healthy and happy! It was just interesting to see that Mio is much more developed in her physical abilities rather than in the verbal and social area, and we wonder if that is reflective of how she’ll be in years to come — will she become more of an athlete than an orator? We’ll just have to wait and see!

One thing seems certain, though… Mio is definitely aggressive when it comes to her personality. She has no problems with going to get what she wants, and pushing her way in to play with the older boys, like she’s doing in the photo below. I have a feeling she’s going to be Miss Bossypants!

Dan and I are definitely the more passive, conflict-averse softies, so we’re not sure where her aggressiveness came from. Although, I remember my mother telling me that when she had to put me in daycare for a few months as a baby, the caretakers would report back to her saying that I was punching and hitting the other babies and taking toys from them. I know what you’re thinking — “Baby Misono? Really?” I have a hard time imagining it myself, but I guess I was pretty fierce as a baby — the resident “mean girl” in the nursery. But my mother was just recounting that story to me again yesterday to point out that even the most tomboyish and aggressive babies can grow up to be the most feminine girls, and that Mio might surprise us by turning into quite the lady in the future after all.

Girly girl or tomboy, we love our sweet little Mio just the way she is! 🙂