Maya knows the word "pee." I'm not sure how this happened. What I do know is that every time I sit down on the toilet at home to do my thing, Maya toddles over and announces, "Pee! Pee!" Seth thinks maybe she picked it up from him. Regardless, it's mildly horrifying/somewhat amusing.

On Sunday afternoon Maya befriended Lucy, my friend Jen's little dog. Lucy is so calm and good-natured---she was the perfect little companion for Maya! Maya giggled when Lucy licked her face, and Lucy tolerated Maya kissing and hugging her repeatedly. There was much cuteness going around.

Seth and I went out for our first date in a year on Saturday night. We had sushi and saw a movie, Knocked Up, which was great and really funny, but probably not for you, Mom and Dad. We were back by 11:00, and Maya was snoozing soundly. One of the teachers at Maya's school did the babysitting. Her name is Lupe, and she's really fantastic.

I am reading an enlightening and very, very helpful book by leading pediatric nutritionist and mental-health professional Ellyn Satter called Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense. (Bought with a Mother's Day check from Mrs. K.) It is wonderful, thoroughly researched, practical, and full of very useful advice. I only wish I'd read it before Maya was born! Anyway, Satter's years of research and clinical experience have taught her that children are skilled self-regulators when it comes to eating: They eat when they're hungry, they cut back when they're not. Even the most seemingly erratic eaters (Maya, that's you) get what they need over the course of a week, calorie-wise. According to Satter, it's the parents' responsibility to determine the what, when, and where of feeding; and it's the child's responsibility to determine the whether and how much of eating. In other words, parents make a variety of healthful, wholesome food available at certain times and in an appropriate, pleasant environment, and the child determines how much (or how little) of that food to eat. It seems like plain old common sense, but for me, who thought it was my responsibility to "force" food into wee little Maya, it's been a revelation. I am now able to relax more during meals, because I know that once I've presented the food to Maya, I can rely on her to take what she wants or needs. Even when that's not much, it's OK. Over the course of several meals and snacks, Maya will get herself adequately fed. I'm focusing now on providing nutritious meals and snacks for Maya, then sitting back and enjoying her company while we eat together. It's made a huge difference. Sorry to ramble on, but I just can't tell you how important this book has been to me!

Vocab Update:

Maya's newest words are shoe, hat, more, down.

She seems to be working on cheese, balloon, and bird.

Maya is also signing for "more," but she tends to overuse the sign, even when she does not, in fact, want more of something (so far as we can determine). She did, however, frantically sign "More! More! More!" after tasting some of my chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream today. She kept signing it until she'd consumed about a third of the ice cream, in fact. It was funny.

Maya's first swim class was today. We all enjoyed it very much, even though one of the babies ralphed in the pool and forced the instructor to end class early. I felt bad for the kid's dad, whom I noticed silently hustling the kid out of there as everyone else was slowly getting out of the water looking miffed, like, "Huh? What happened? Someone pooped? What?" Oh well. I think babies have been turning their assorted bodily fluids loose in public pools since public pools have existed. No biggie. (But thank goodness it wasn't MY kid!)

A funny thing that is not unusual around here: This morning we three went out to breakfast. Maya was angelic and fun and sweet and charming, as she'd just woken up an hour before and was greeting her day with enthusiasm and joy. While we were eating, the elderly couple that had been sitting next to us left, and on their way out the woman dropped by our table to compliment us on Maya's good behavior. Later that day, we had a quick lunch at Rubio's, shortly after Maya had woken abruptly from a too-short nap and was thirsty, tired, cranky, and generally out of sorts. In the restaurant, she melted down on two occasions, and her wailing echoed throughout the place as Seth and I cringed. It actually wasn't, like, the most mortifying thing ever or anything---Maya IS one year old, after all---but certainly no one swung by to tell us what an utterly well-behaved little rugrat she was. And that's OK, because we don't need her to be in a good mood all the time, and Maya is only human, not a Perfect Little Girl Robot. It just strikes me kind funny that she is perceived differently by the general public depending on where she is in her day and to what extent she's had it, so to speak.

One thing that's consistent, though: People think she's awfully cute. How's this for proof? Last night, at dinner at a pizza place, Maya so thoroughly charmed the teenaged girl taking our order that I received a second pizza slice totally free of charge. "Don't worry about it," whispered the girl, sliding the pizza my way, then bestowing a huge shiny grin on Maya. Then, today (at Rubio's), I ordered a milk for Maya and the same thing happened! "Here it is, don't worry about it," said the guy taking our order, slipping a half-pint of milk onto our tray. And sure enough, no milk appeared on our receipt. I mean, I wish I had half the power over other people that Maya has! That two-toothed, pink-lipped smile of hers can do anything!