This month we celebrated Thanksgiving in our apartment in Isla Verde. Raul and Daniela went to the beach we had Thanksgiving lunch and off to Ponce we went with JuanGa. Daniela’s verbal skills have been improving and she is saying colors and counting.
We continue to do crafts and we are now cooking. For Thanksgiving she helped make pie crust and we even made little blueberry pies in some molds we bought her so she can cook with me while I am cooking. After we made them in our toasteroven, we had one of them and they tasted pretty good. We brought one to Melvin and Juan Luis (a friend she has made who works at the Water Club next door).
She loves our neighbors Cirene, Resat, Maria, Amaury, Cirene and all of their pets. At times Daniela will play with their cats and dogs alike. They are gentle with her. Paloma who is a old Spanish Mastiff is too keen on little kids but we do say hello to her. She loves Paco a Weimaraner and Pipa a cat. Mona Lisa is another cat that she plays with and lets just say she loves being around these animals.
She also realized that she is afraid of spiders and freaked out on me one night whiel Raul was walking the dog.
Her memory is so sharp it amazes us. When she was 16 months old we were sent a video link about a song dedicated to Father’s. Just the other day she asked for the song. She amazes us with her love for singing and dancing.
She is also entering her independence days where she wants to run away from mom and dad any chance she gets. She will tell us if she wants to go walking on the beach. She doesn’t like washing her feet anymore from walking in the sand because going up and down the ramp in front of the building is more fun. Of course I freak out because I don’t want her to slip and fall and we end up dragging sand into the tub.
I do give her little tasks like putting dog food in JuanGa’s bowl, putting her clothes away in her drawer, watering plants, helping me wash down the walls. She also imitates us when we vaccuum the floor with her toy lawnmower. She started using it one day and following me around with it so now we make it part of our routine. It is one of the ways she allows me to do some housework although Raul is so much better at it than I am. I end up putting her in the reboso sometimes and carrying her with me.
She hates the sound of trucks and wants to see them while she cries her eyes out. She will tell me “Verlo” when she hears the garbage truck. Raul thinks the reason she says she wants to see it is to overcome her fears. It is a bit of a struggle because since we live near the hotel, there are always trucks or taxis backing up and making lots of noise.
We are still breastfeeding her and probably won’t stop until she decides to. I thought I would be able to just pluck her off and she would automatically stop but she still asks for “Nenene” Or “Tetete” Or “Leche de Mama” We have tried to give her almond chocolate milk and she likes the soy milk. But it has too much sugar so we stopped giving her the almond chocolate milk.
In almost two years, we had a scare with her early in the month with a high fever one night. Of course I breastfed her all night along with giving her medicine and she recovered by the next night. Raul and I on the otherhand not so much. I was knocked out on the floor one day that Raul waited till Daniela got up from her nap, put her in the stroller and went to Starbucks. We also had Raul’s mom here until the beginning of November. She was helping Tio Tito recover after heart surgery.
My sister Veronica also got engaged and then Married this month. Since it was a tough month for us financially and with such short notice on her nuptials at her engagement party, we could not go.
Daniela loves singing and dancing and does little shows for us. She will take a JuanGa’s bone, a rolling pin, or the vaccum extension and sing.
We are amazed at how she connects things with other things also. Just today we were making pancakes and she wanted to mix. So we got her a spoon and I told her that we mix like if we were making circles. And she said, “Circulos como papel” She really amazed me with her comment.
If she doesn’t now someone, she will call them, “People” So if we are walking and someone says, “hello or hola” She will tell me, “People hablando con Daniela”
It is amazing how time flies. Although I have to calm my self down when she gets upset, I am so thankful she has a patient dad in Raul. He really is the best at calming her down and me too. We fed off each other and creat shit storms at times. He reallly has the patience that only a good dad can have.
Songs she is hooked on this month are Jaya by Macha Colon y Los Okapi. She is always hooked with Payasa Agapita and Potoco. She loves the Talking Tom app and the video. She even tries to sing the song with Angela the Cat. I see her watching music videos and listening to songs to try and memorizw the words. Firework by Katy Perry is another one she loves to sing. And went she knows words in the song, those are the ones she sings the loudest and with the most expression.
Raul has a client that made a trade for a website and provided personal fitness services to Raul. One of the trainers has a little girl who is 3. Daniela played with her for the first ever playing with another child one on one with her animal toys. It was amazing to see her interaction and I was of course a little scared. At one point Daniela said something to the little girl and I tried to come over and translate and Daniela told me”Sitting” as in Mom, I am playing go and sit and leave me be. I got this LOL I went and sat down and let her play. The little girl Alana told her to sit and Daniela sat. I was like I need to bring this little girl home with me. It really made me happy and laugh at how well they played together. Hopefully we can do more of this.