Maya baby, you bring so much joy to our lives. You are a little over 20 months now. You are learning things SO quickly. You often repeat the last word of every sentence we say-English or Arabic. Some college-age visitors recently taught you to give the fist bump. You love anything having to do with water—everything from your baby pool on the balcony, to a glimpse of the sea. When you see the sea, you say “May” (Arabic: water) over and over. You also use the word, “wa-wa” for water, and milk is, “Me-me”. You’ve just started to say things are pretty, and you love babies. You’re a little dangerous around actual babies, as you enjoy pointing out all of their body parts, especially their eyes (and you’re a little unaware of personal space and kind of sit on them a little bit). After baths I wrap you up in a towel and hold you in front of the mirror and call you my little baby. Then you let me snuggle you. I love it! When you want us to do something, or feed you something you’ve asked for, you nod your head up and down emphatically and make a little “um-hmh” kind of sound (and sometimes add in eyebrow raises for effect). I would love to catch this on video, but when a camera comes out, you want to see it, rather than be seen by it. You have started to learn the names of all of our friends and family and your tone of voice is so cute, especially the way you say please and thank you. You also do the intense nodding while saying please if you really want something. You are a GREAT eater and almost never reject food that we offer you. You’ve just about mastered eating with silverware (well, sort of mastered).
Much to my surprise and delight, you still take two naps a day, which has helped me so much (I need two naps a day too!) You wake up early in the mornings and have special time with Daddy while he gives you milk and reads you books. You still love to read books and you’ve just started to ask to watch videos occasionally, though I try not to let that happen too often (you know, I don’t want to kill all those brain cells). You are extremely cautious when walking over anything slanted or bumpy or raised--to the point that it’s kind of comical, but you’ve saved your face and teeth a lot of pain by being so careful. That may be the only thing you’re really careful about! You are fun-loving and you love to play chase (which is more like hide and seek) with Daddy and you like to wrestle and tickle too. You still love the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (because we row you like you are the oars) and you've just learned "Ring Around the Rosies". You are learning to count, but most of the time, you just like the number two. You hold up your fingers and point to them while saying two over and over. We were at the pool last week and we would count to three and then you would step/jump into the pool. You got very brave and let us hold just your hands while you kicked your legs. You have also recently learned to blow bubbles and have done that in the baby pool, the big pool and even the bathtub. You are friendly and sociable, even when there are a lot of people, unless too many people get in your face at once. We are trying to teach you to at least give a polite greeting to anyone who greets you (a lot of people want to greet you here b/c you look so special to them with your blue eyes and blonde hair). You have been out of your crib on your very own "big girl bed" for about two weeks now, and you handled the transition like a rock star!
I never could have anticipated how much I would love you or how much joy you would bring to our lives!
