Growing up...

Karina is now 16 months old and very much a toddler now.  She gets into everything and likes to tear or take everything apart.  If Eliana is not careful and leaves a craft project within Karina's reach, one can be sure that it will be torn apart and destroyed within the hour.

Karina right now loves to climb onto things.  She likes to stand on top of the step stools that we have around for Eliana to use.  The problem is that Karina is still not 100% reliable on her feet.  Here is Karina sitting down on a step stool--a much safer activity.

Karina also likes to try out new things.  Here are the oven mitts that go all the way up past her elbows.

The two girls can be best of friends most of the time.  Here, each is enjoying their own bowl of cheese puffs (the really yummy ones from Trader Joe's!) and so there is no fighting between the two--for now.

The girls also like to go outside to keep Daddy company while he's cleaning up the yard.  Karina is stable enough on her feet to walk on the uneven ground.  But every once in a while she does fall down and needs help getting back up.  She'll just sit there and cry.  We think she won't get up herself because she doesn't want to get her hands muddy.

You see Karina here wearing a winter cap.  It only stays on for about 10 minutes.  Then she yanks it off; she really does not like wearing hats or caps.

Karina's hairs is growing longer and longer.  The other day, Mommy did something funny to her hair.

This past weekend we went out to a Mexican restaurant for a change of pace.  The food took a looooong time to come so we dined on the free basket of chips.  Unfortunately, the salsa was very spicy and so off limits to the girls.  What's the next best thing to dip the chip into?  Mommy's glass of water, of course!

The chips were very large, but Karina's mouth is larger still.

One of Karina's favorite activities is hanging out in the fridge.  If she sees someone open the fridge door, she scurries on over, wedges her way between their legs and plops herself down before we can shut the door.  Eliana did the same thing at that age...

Karina's language abilities are growing too.  She can now sign "tree", "outside", "mommy", "daddy", "meat"  and "pray".  She also puts two words together, like "where + Mommy?"  Lately, we've been working teaching her the parts of the body.  Emily's been doing that in English and Elvin with Portuguese.  Ironically enough, she knows the words in Portuguese better than in English right now...

Karina is developing quite a playful and almost mischevious personality.  Lately, she has been stuffing her mouth full of food and then pretending to talk to get a reaction out of us.  And sometimes she just likes to show off by pretending to fall down. 

Our little Karina is growing up quickly!