Marea is a happy kid. She's got so much going on in her world right now, and she's loving it. Her coordination and vocabulary are skyrocketing, and she's figuring everything out.
She loves singing in the car. She's starting to memorize the songs and will often belt them out while we're driving. Like, 'winkle, winkle, wittle shar'; 'H I A, H I A, MMMMP'; and the itsy bitsy spider...which i don't know what she is saying but i recognize the song and her hand motions that go with it are absolutely hilarious. She talks about Homer all the time. More commonly known around here these days as 'wow' (still) although she also knows his name is Homer now. She'll always ask 'where's wow?' or talk about 'wow sleeping on bed', or just meow or hiss like him really loudly. She also pretends to be putting her babies/stuffed animals/any animal or person toy to bed all the time. She can do that a lot. She'll wrap them up in blankets or towels and make them go night night. She even makes a bed out of her blocks and puts her farm animal toys to sleep. The kitchen and food toys are getting a lot of use. She likes to make different meals and present them to us. The bread and peas sandwich is my favorite. And she still absolutely loves playing with Mr. Potato Head. That one has been a favorite for a long time.
The backyard is awesome. She just loves playing out there. She likes the toys that she has, especially the swing, but for the most part she's just happy digging in the dirt or playing with her watering cans or finding rocks. I think she has the most fun following me around and doing whatever i'm doing, like watering or planting seeds. We often sit out there and have lunch together. She doesn't mind getting dirty at all. I often strip her down before she comes in the house because she is such a mess.
Marea just went on her first fishing trip in Utah. We went to Sand Hallow resevoir with grandpa and daddy and she hung out on the boat, playing with the worm bait. She wasn't very interested in the fish when it was caught, but we talked about the fishies afterwards and she liked that. We introduced her to 'hiking' which at this stage involves her walking around the house. But she thinks that is pretty darn cool....hiking around the perimeter of the house, checking out all the beautiful red sand, carrying around rocks, looking for bugs, and watching out for the 'owie' cactus.
Even though it's still a lot of work, sometimes I wish she could stay this age forever. Because it's so much fun to watch her enjoying life so much. I know that she will always enjoy life, it's just her nature....but their is nothing like the carefree world of a toddler.
