Maria's birthday was a good day. I had been practicing with her all week on how to answer the question, "How old are you?" and to hold up three fingers. She gets so proud of herself when she does this. She gets this determined little look on her face as she carefully touches her thumb to her pinky and then with concentrated effort puts up her three other fingers. I love it!
On birthday mornings I like to make that person's favorite breakfast. For Kevin that's scrambled eggs with some sauteed veggies and cheese mixed in, toast with butter, and a sausage (now soy). For Carlos it's pancakes with maple syrup and strawberry jam. For Maria, it's huevos (eggs.) She loves to eat scrambled eggs and can eat three easily! So that meal was easy: huevos, check. For lunch and dinner? Not so easy. I should have planned ahead better and made a soup for lunch and Colombian lentils for dinner maybe. But with ArtPrize going on (more about that in a later post) and our friend from NJ in town, it just didn't happen. She did not love her next two meals that day, but thankfully she's young enough that she doesn't really understand birthdays yet anyway! I did make birthday cupcakes though, and they were enjoyed by all!
As I was thinking about her special day and how to celebrate it, I realized that we do not know many of her favorite things. She's in between languages right now. She now understands English more than she does Spanish and speaks more English than Spanish, but she doesn't understand enough English or remember enough Spanish to comprehend everything we're saying or to communicate her thoughts. She shows no signs of frustration about this though, so that's good, but I was a bit saddened when I thought about how I don't know her like I know Carlos. If I wanted to buy some balloons, what color should I get? She's shown no interest in a particular color over another, so I don't know what her favorite is. What dessert should I make for her? I don't know her favorite. Etc. I know that knowledge of these things will come with time. So instead of focusing on what I don't know, I'm going to focus on (and share with you) what I do know!
Maria really enjoys riding her bike as well as riding in the carrier on the back of Kevin's bike. We think she would do this for hours if we let her! She loves to do puzzles, play with cars, and "play" with board games. She's interested in anything that Carlos has that he doesn't want her to touch. She loves pushing buttons on anything she can reach (whether or not she's allowed to!): phones, remotes, CD players, the washer and dryer, toys, etc. She wants to be held around the house when we want her to walk around freely, and she wants to walk around freely when we're out in public and we want her to be held! She is shy around those she first meets, and is very quiet. At home she talks all the time and is very loud! (A good sign that she's comfortable at home with us, right?!) And something we discovered while at Plan B during ArtPrize: she loves to play musical instruments!
Although we've been having a hard time with her lately (Maria can be naughty!! Another sign that she's now comfortable with us?), we love her to pieces! Her smile and laugh can brighten up a room. She is a gift from God, precious in His sight (and in ours!)
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