Hello, and welcome to the second bonus chapter of Not Just a Phase, focusing on Carlota.
It was morning in the Casagrande apartment, and Carlos and Frida were trying to get their one-year-old daughter Carlota into a little white shirt, but she kept throwing it away, because she thought it looked too plain.
“No!”, said Carlota for the umpteenth time, and threw the shirt out the door and into the hallway, where Sergio, who was flying around waiting for Rosa to call him over for breakfast, swooped down and put it on himself.
At this point, Carlos and Frida decided they needed help, so they went over to Apartment 2A to ask Carlos’s parents for advice. Sergio followed, still wearing the shirt.
“Mama, Papa,” said Carlos, “We need some help.”
“What is it, Mijo?”, asked Rosa.
“Carlota refuses to wear her shirt,” said Frida, “and now Sergio’s wearing it instead.”
“I think she thinks it looks better on me!”, said Sergio.
“I don’t understand it,” said Carlos, “Maria has a little son of Carlota's age, and he never had any trouble with his clothes.”
“Perhaps girl babies are different?” said Frida-- she couldn’t remember being particularly fussy about her clothes as a child, but then again, she couldn’t remember her infancy.
“I don’t think so,” said Hector, “Maria never fussed about her clothes when she was one. Although, she did put a pair of pants on her head once.”
“Ha!”, said Carlos, “I know what to say next time she brings up the inkpot incident.”
“Maybe she just wants a different shirt,” said Rosa.
“OK, I’ll see if she’ll prefer a different one,” said Carlos.
“Does that mean I get to keep this one?”, asked Sergio.
No one answered.
So, Carlos and Frida put a purple shirt on Carlota instead, and she liked that one.
Later, Frida put down some paper and finger paints for Carlota to paint with.
Carlota was keen to paint, but she didn’t want to get her shirt dirty, so she grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped herself in it.
Frida cried happily and took a photo of it.
About an hour later, the family (except Hector, who was at work) was watching TV, when, during a commercial break, Carlota got bored and began looking around for something to do.
She noticed Rosa’s purse, dug around in it for a while, and found the makeup.
Carlota found some pink blush and rubbed it on her cheeks, then she took out some red lipstick and put it on.
Being a baby, she didn’t do a very good job and ended up looking more like a clown, so Rosa had to wipe it off.
At around noon, when Hector was on his lunch break, the entire family was going on a walk, when Carlota saw a cute little baby dress in the window of a store and pointed at it.
“Sorry, Carlota,” said Hector, “That’s way too expensive.”
“We can go to a restaurant for lunch, though,” said Carlos, “and we can give you your first taste of ice cream.”
Carlota burbled happily, so the whole family went off to the restaurant.