Well, May passed with nary a Mayalstones post! Baaaaad Mommy. Bad! Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where May went. There was Mother's Day, and my mom's birthday---Hi Mom!---and a Memorial Day weekend that barely registered on my radar, it came and went so fast. And now here we are into June, and I find myself with 13 days remaining before my Big Trip Back East With Maya (And No Seth). Ohhhh the anxiety.

But anyway, let's talk about Maya! I think Maya's existence right now can essentially be summarized by saying, "She's two." That kind of explains it all, really. She's giggly, sings a lot, is really honing her climbing and running skills, utters a long, sophisticated sentence every now and again, and generally doesn't listen to a word I say.

And now, let's break those down. First, the giggling. It's a little more like maniacal laughter, actually. She really gets going when she finds something funny (like throwing a fork at Mommy during dinner. A-hem). She's known for her laugh around the apartment complex. It makes the other kids smile and forgive her for constantly trying to swipe their toys. Next, the singing. Wow. Does she ever loooove the singing. I think she gets this from me, as I remember spending much of my time singing and humming to myself as a kid. My mom's like this, too. (Hi again, Mom!) It's fun to listen to her sing a few bars of something from school and realize it's a song we know. Lately these ditties have been pretty heavy on the Jesus, thanks to the Episcopalian influence of her church-run preschool. Stuff like, "Rise! And shine! And give God your glory glory!" She's like the world's tiniest evangelist, belting this stuff out around the apartment. We sort of roll our eyes about it, but I think it's OK for now.

Thirdly, the climbing and running. Man, is she ever cute when she runs! She really gets going and grins the whole way. It's just funny because her little legs are so short. But her balance is great and her speed ain't too shabby either! She's been climbing the cinder-block walls of our apartment complex, much to our constant terror, but she's been totally successful, managing to swing her legs up and over without too much physical trauma. She can also climb onto adult-sized chairs, and climb down from our bed, which is pretty far up off the ground. As for the long sentences, those are neat. She tends to speak in sentences of five or six words---you know, things like, "May I have some cheese please, Mommy?" (Well, OK, that was seven words.) But once a day or so she busts out with something longer and more complex, such as, "We'll put on shoes after we play with puzzles." It's neat. And as for rarely listening to me? Yeah. She rarely listens to me, much preferring to live life on her own schedule. She's two.

School has continued to be a bit of a struggle for her lately. We've been getting word that Maya cries easily and often and needs to be near an adult all the time. I get the feeling that she is overwhelmed now that she's in the preschool, but I'm not sure what to do about it. It's something Seth and I and the school staff need to talk about. I don't think she hates school, but I get the feeling that certain elements of her school day stress her out.

Maya is currently dealing with an ear infection (again). We're trying the wait-and-see approach before starting her on yet another antibiotic. We'll have her ears looked at again tomorrow to see if the infection healed on its own or not.

Happy June!