Marisa is 21 months old

Marisa is definitely a toddler now. She is very active and always on the go with curious eyes. She prefers not to sit still for long periods of time and hence has started to dislike her stroller or even the shopping cart. She manages to turn herself around in the shopping cart when buckled in tightly, and ride facing away from me on her knees. She prefers being carried in the sling or carrier over the stroller and I can usually keep her there longer. She can however keep up with my walking pace and more and more frequently I find myself walking both my girls with one of their hands in each of mine, and I realize I have two big girls now...so bittersweet.

Marisa enjoys climbing everything and anything. Omar and I are probably her favorite "things" to climb. She has also started shrieking much like Elena did but to my surprise it is louder and will often cause more head turning. This is one of the difficult parts of toddlerhood for me anyway, and I would say I can definitely see her testing our limits.

Marisa is a typical little sister wanting to be like big sister and wanting to be included in all of Elena's activities. Marisa loves stuffed animals and SHOES!! She loves shoes so much that I have given up putting shoes on her when we go out because she removes them the moment we get in the car. She really just enjoys putting them on and taking them off over and over. She has most success with Elena's shoes so she often wears Elena's around the house. She loves my shoes too of course but her rain boots are probably her favorite. She will walk around wearing them saying bota, bota. She is saying a lot of words and phrases these days and catches me by surprise with new vocabulary...most recently she said the word donut and was actually requesting a donut. A lot of her vocabulary is coming more from her sister than from us. Anything Elena says she wants to say. Like today she said raining right after Elena.

Marisa loves to eat and will try to fill every square inch of her mouth with fistfuls of food. We encourage her to use her silverware and she can use them successfuly, but sometimes her impatience gets the best of her. She loves sweets and anything flavorful. She likes broccoli but only with salt and pepper. This is often the case with many foods.

Marisa is such a little helper much like her daddy. If we're heading out the door and I ask the girls to put their shoes on, Marisa immediately goes to find Elena's shoes to bring them to her. If she sees me picking up toys she's right there helping. She seems to really enjoy every opportunity to help with or without praise.

Marisa has been taking two naps up until two weeks ago. She hasn't dropped the morning one completely though and alternates between one and two. I imagine it will be only one fairly soon.

Soon I will have a two year old and a household without babies. It is flying by too quickly.



blurry but typical smile

shrieking