Cata, little girl extraordinaire

Catalina deserves to be written about. She is delightful at 17 months. She is very social, fearless, lively and physical. She is full of personality. Right now her favorite things are bicycles (more about that later), trying on other people shoes, Joaquin (whom she calls A-din), bottles of soymilk, babydolls, her bear Osito, picking raspberries from the bush in yard and towel rides. She can ask and she does all of her favorite things many times a day. I think of her as my little shadow because she is with me all the time, at everything I do. Cata is so outgoing. She has a queen's wave that she gives to almost everyone she encounters. She gives hugs at the slightest invitation. She pushes her way into games she wants and grabs at preferred toys from bigger kids. She has so many words, here are just some I can remember. Her first words were balloon, bubble, aqua and mama. Now she says please, baby, shoes, tines for calcetines, nightnight, bottle, brush, aqua, eat, sit, Joaquin, mama, papa, bicycle, choochoo, truck, donut, mas, (as in mas donut), pan, arroz, manzana, apple, turn, next, swing, push, Cata belongs to our family now. We delight in her girlish differences. She loves to snuggle and when she sits in my lap, she takes my hands and joins them around her belly. She sits in my lap to have her shoes put on in the sweetest way. She hugs her brother and loves to climb into his bed with him. She also loves loves bicycles. She loves to ride on her tricycle that I can push with a pole. But she really loves to sit on a real bike- where her feet dont touch the pedals and she cant balance so that someone has to hold her the whole time. She cries when her turn is over. That's a bit annoying actually.