A list of Nina’s current favourite things.

Her books.  Nina has 11 books that she adores which I am very happy about.  She also has a routine around book reading that must be followed.  Firstly, she gets them off the shelf, she has to get them I can’t, and it has to be all 11 of them.  One by one she gets them down from the shelf and makes a neat pile of them on the bed and then she sits down for me to read them.  I am not allowed to hold them though, or turn the pages, that is also her job.  Once she has read a book it goes on another pile of the read books.  She knows some of the words which she loves to say and we have some actions and sounds that go with many of them that she also really likes.  And we cannot stop until they are all read.  This is all very cute and mostly fun but we have been having a few dramas of late if we don’t follow this routine precisely.  For example, if I touch a book or don’t make the right sound or don’t read all 11 of them she gets very, very frustrated.  And reading all 11 every time can get very exhausting as we she wants me to read them to her all the time.  When she wakes up she says books, as soon as she gets home from anywhere she goes to the room to get the books, before her nap and bedtime she wants books.

Food.  Nina loves to eat.  Her fave foods are grapes, followed by any fruit, boiled eggs, rice and popcorn.  It certainly takes the pressure off having her eat so well especially here in Peru where people love babies to eat a lot.  At the moment, she wants to feed herself.  No one can do it for it.  She sits down at the table and when her food is served she says, “chau” to Martin and I and makes us sit far away.  This is a good thing but very very messy.  I feel like I am constantly cleaning clothes, floors, tables etc.  Of late she has decided she doesn’t like it when food drops on her clothes so each time it happens, which is pretty much every mouthful she gets all upset and we have to clean it up straight away.  It can makes meal times a bit of a drama.

Other babies and children Nina is fascinated by other kids especially babies.  Everytime we see one she says “bebe” “bebe”.  She tries really hard to be gentle with the babies but I am not sure gentle is really possible for a almost two year old so.

Going to the river.  She continues to love been outside in general.  She is constatntly saying to us “vamos” which means let’s go.  The river is her favourite place at the moment.  She loves to run around on the sand and kick her legs in the water.  I love it there too so we are there a lot.

Dressing up like a clown  She has this clown nose and hat that she loves us to put on her and Martin talks like a clown.  She thinks it is hillarious and it is.  Here is a picture of her.  She still totally cutes me out.