A New Year

It's been hard to get back into writing again. Once too much time goes by, there's too much to tell about all the little things that Mariana does to amaze and astound.

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Carlson in Florida over the New Years holiday. Mariana has officially nicknamed them "Gummy and Paka". Where those names come from I have no idea but that's what she's going with. Paka won big points by always having pretzels at the ready and Gummy giggled away as Mariana ran around in circles for her amusement. It was warm enough the first couple days we were there so were able to go to the beach. M was then obsessed with it thereafter, even when it 45 degrees. Agua! Agua! Agua! anytime we passed a body of water. It's convenient that she loves the beach because we do too.

Recent milestones:

Reaching up and opening doors

Talking more everyday and starting to repeat without prompting
Pulling off her own socks
Putting things in the garbage, including stuff that doesn't belong there
Understanding "please"
Her first fat lip thanks to a wipeout on the kitchen floor
Requesting a song to be played for her ad nauseum- the current obsession is "The Hello Song" from the Putumayo cd

Mariana got multiple sound producing toys for Christmas. There is a dog that sings Christmas songs and a sheep that plays a banjo and sings "Thank god I'm a country boy". As you can see in this youtube video below she wants them played continuously and in unison from the time she gets up until she goes to bed including when she eats. She also anticipates when they are going to turn off and asks for us to turn them on again before they even stop, lest one second should pass without a racket. And to add insult to injury she makes US press the on button even though she knows perfectly well how to do it herself. It's just the beginning, I know, I know...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWdH5mCX7-I

see this picture of my beautiful wife and daughter, happily on the plane ride home