Letter to my warrior: 23 months

Micaela is 23 months old today! And she will be 2 in a month! Side note: as I type this I’m slightly freaking out at this thought — not because my baby is growing up, but more so because I’ve just realized that my baby’s birthday party is in about 30 days and I’ve hardly done anything to prepare… Ok, thought over, back to denial.

I have to say, these milestone updates are getting harder to write. My princess seems to be developing and progressing at warp speed leaving us constantly amazed at each new milestone and achievement. 

Over the past month, her language ability has improved dramatically — each new day brings new words — “corta - cut”, “no se – don´t know”, “rompecabezas - puzzles”, “alas - wings”, “cumpleaños - birthday”, “chapa - chase” are some recent additions. She says “please” and “thank you”, often without being prompted. Micaela loves to point out the color of certain items — “azul - blue”, “rojo - red”, and “verde - green” and loves to impersonate animals at the mere sight of them. She has started putting words together, using past and future phrases more often and loves to tell us stories as we strain to decipher key words to understand what she is talking about. 

Micaela´s favorite phrase is still: “No, no, no, no quiero! - No, no, no, I don´t want that!” while putting her hand up like a stop sign. Although recently she has started using “yes” a lot more often. A funny oddity is that she will yell out the word “yes” in response to any question that is yelled within the house — “Moti, do you want some soda?” Micaela, “Yes!”.

My princess now climbs the staircase in a matter of moments and walk down as well (though not as confidentially), can kick a ball well and already has a decent over-arm throw, which has led to a number of new games. 

More than anything she is turning into a very cheeky little girl — filled with giggles. Like any toddler she gets up to her fair share of mischief — emptying tissue boxes, putting all of the face washes into the bathtub, putting the whole toilet roll into the toilet… she loves nothing more than play “chase” up and down the hallway. And she loves to hide. Every time that Pablo shows her a new hiding place — behind the hamper in the closet or behind the blinds — she will go a hide there four or five times in a day.

She will do funny little things that we never want to forget. Like lying in bed at night and rolling over just minutes before she falls asleep and pressing her belly button while saying “ombligoooooooo! – belly buttonnnnnnnn!”. Or insisting on “helping” to sweep the floor every time we get out the brooms (helping consists of spreading the pile of dirt to the four corners of the room). Or insisting on wearing her sunglasses when we go out.

My baby loves to dance to any music with a beat — she bops up and down, spins and claps her hands with excitement. She knows the hand actions to a number of songs: “5 Little Monkeys”, “If You’re Happy and You Know it”, “The wheels on the bus” and loves it when we change nursery rhythms to include her name in them. 

Micaela has a number of obsessions including: ants, the swimming pool and pez candy, water and Disney characters, Backyardigans, soft cuddly toy animals, the computer, stars and the moon, as well as pesto spaghetti. In fact, often the first words she will say in the morning include “fideo? – spaghetti?” as if to let us know that is what she wants to have for lunch. And during the day, she loves to be taken on expeditions to search for ants or snails. 

Already, my girl is strong-willed. She is not easily coerced, tricked, or deterred. So many of the tricks that we see other parents use on their toddlers to distract them, fall apart on her. On the one hand, it makes some things harder, but on the other, it makes us proud that she has such a strong personality and we just hope that she keeps on being like that when she grows up!