While Maria was spending her quality time weekend with her Daddy, she tried pudding for the first time.  I think it goes without saying that she absolutely loves it!  Soter kept calling it chocolate..."You want chocolate?"  They had it the first time after lunch on Saturday.  When she woke up from her nap later that afternoon she marched herself over to the fridge and asked "Daddy, chokit?"  Shortly after that she had her 2nd cup...of course Daddy couldn't deny her.  I was able to witness her delight last night, after her bath.  I asked Soter if he was crazy giving her chocolate pudding after a bath and all he said was "watch."  I've never seen more care taken while eating, ever.  She took smaller bites, made sure the spoon was clean, licked any missed pudding off her fingers, swiped her tongue around her lips and chin as far as she could.  There was no way she was going to let any of that pudding get away.  It was so funny to watch.  I think she might like it more than ice cream!  It certainly put a smile on my face.  And then of course Mommy swoops in with the "learning" portion of the evening, teaching Maria that it's called pudding.  Not smart, the rest of the night we heard "more. pooning? chokit pooning?" LOL

In other news, she's mastered the open cup!  She was doing well a while ago, but Mommy dropped the ball and she has not been practicing much at all.  Yesterday at every meal she used an open cup, and she did wonderfully.  It took her a few tries to figure out where her lips go, but she got it and by dinner she was slamming down milk left and right.  Hooray!

Maria has caught on to apologies.  A fe weeks ago we were in the grocery store and I turned my cart wuickly not knowing there was someone behind me.  I said "Oh, I'm sorry" and we moved on.  A bit later in the trip we were "parked" next to another cart in an aisle and we appeared to be right in front of waht the woman was looking for.  I said "Oh" and before I could get anything else out, Maria said "I sorry!"  the woman smiled, I giggled and we were on our way.  Last night Soter was playing with Rizzo and things were getting crazy.  Forgetting herself, Rizzo rammed into Maria sending her to the ground.  Maria stood up and said "I sorry RB!" and went back to playing.  She's getting it!