We just never know what Maya will say or do next! This morning, for instance, when her toast popped out of the toaster, she shouted, "Toast!" She's also just learned to go down the playground slide by herself. And she's discovered how to walk backward and spin around in circles. (I remember spinning around in circles as a kid. I'd spin spin spin as fast as I could, then lie down on the floor and savor the ensuing dizziness. Thinking about that now makes me slightly nauseated.)

Maya can do some of the hand gestures for the itsy-bitsy spider song, and she loves to play "Where's Maya?" She's a master imitator, too. She'll roam the apartment calling "Maya! Mayyyya!" in the same tone of voice I do. And she's taken to saying, "I know, I know," which is what I say when she's crying for a legitimate reason and I'm trying to soothe her. I realize we are rapidly approaching the time in Maya's life when we must all change our "shits" to "shoots" and our "asses" to "butts" and our "damn its" to "darn its" when in her presence, because the next thing you know, Maya will repeat them back to us---or even worse, say them at her school.

I had been reading in one of my (many) parenting books that a kid Maya's age should "be able to build a tower of two blocks." I was concerned, because I'd never seen Maya do this. Granted, the few blocks she has are buried at the bottom of one of her toy boxes, so it's not like she gets an opportunity to tower-build all that often. But still, I'd never seen her really make a tower of anything---the act of placing one item on top of another wasn't something I'd witnessed her doing. I wasn't really worried, because I knew that if I were, I'd be Ridiculous Worrying Mother one-hundred times over. But it sort of bugged me. So, yesterday I pulled those blocks out of the toybox and showed Maya how to stack them. Wouldn't you know it, she stacked a tower of three, knocked them over with a toy drum stick, and moved on to bigger and better pursuits. I was satisfied and a bit ashamed of myself for being even the slightest bit concerned. I think Maya just isn't particularly interested right now in building things, which of course is perfectly fine. She's interested in music, climbing, walking, running, kissing things and people, petting animals, pouring water in her tub, and labeling ("Baby!" "Cheese!" "Dada!" "Elmo!"). Putting things together can wait!