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!

I am loooong overdue for a Mayalstones post!
So then, let’s jump right in!
Two-year-olds vary in the particular skills they choose to focus on at any given time. While some labor away at learning to jump and balance and tumble, others, like Maya, are just hell-bent on talking, talking, talking. Maya’s verbal skills are what she’s most interested in developing right now; and my goodness, is she ever. This is an exciting time in that every day, Maya seems more and more able to build sentences, express herself, and answer open-ended questions.
Last night, as we were all sitting down to a delicious-looking curry Seth had made (with thanks to Trader Joe’s for the sauce), I remarked on what an appetizing dish he’d managed to throw together despite having to field multiple phone calls and hold a clingy toddler through much of the preparation. Maya then turned to Seth, hugged his arm, and said very earnestly, “Good job, Daddy!”
Well. Hello, waterworks. I got all sniffly and teary-eyed at Maya’s well-articulated show of support for her dad.
Earlier that evening, as I was arriving home from work and ran into Maya and Seth playing in the courtyard, Maya announced, “I’m blowing bubbles, Mommy!” with totally unbridled enthusiasm.
When I asked her what she’d done at school that day (a tough question for a two-year-old to answer, I think, since there’s such a huge selection of potential answers), she struggled a bit but managed to tell me, “Um, um, I drank water…sink!”
Me: “You drank water? From the sink? Wha- Oh! Do you mean the water fountain? Did you drink from the water fountain by yourself?”
Maya: “Yeah! By self!”
Seth: “Yeah, I saw her in the process of doing that when I arrived this afternoon.”
After exchanging quick glances of “Oh great, now she knows how to use nasty old germ-infested water fountains” with Seth, I really had to stop and marvel at the answer she gave. She’s making progress fast and furiously!

**
…and now let’s talk about school. Maya’s been struggling some with the transition from the Infant/Toddler room at her daycare to the actual Green Room for two-year-olds at the preschool. It’s no wonder, really: In the I/T room, the emphasis was on large chunks of free play dotted here and there with storytime, dancing and singing, and art. This daily schedule was developmentally appropriate and really appealed to Maya’s sense of curiosity and toddler-sized attention span. In the Green Room, she has been confronting a much more structured day, full of transitions she does not want to make. When she’s having the time of her life fingerpainting, for example, she does not understand why she must suddenly stop and get cleaned up for a snack. The teachers said she’d been putting up a fuss and crying during such transitions; plus, when I’d take her to school in the mornings, she would freeze up right inside the door, and cry and shout “Mommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” as I left. It’s been stressful and not a good way to start our day. However, the past two days, Maya’s acceptance of school has apparently improved, and the teachers have sent home handwritten notes remarking on her “turnaround.” I’m sure there will be more backsliding and roadblocks to come---but for now, I am SO proud of Maya for her recent successes.

These days Maya is a bit of a Moody McMoodypants. When I go to retrieve her from her crib every morning, I never know what’s in store for us that day. Sometimes, as was the case today, she starts out happy and goofy and high-spirited and more or less independent, then we’ll hit a crying spell late morning (the cause of which might be utterly unknown to me), then she’ll recover and do fine for another several hours, then she’ll get mad during her evening bath and wail away plaintively until bottle time with Daddy. Other days, Maya is happy-go-lucky from sunup to sundown, tra-la-la, fiddle-dee-dee.

And then there are the Chock Full O’ Tantrum days, where Maya seems to go from one meltdown to the next, becoming angry and frustrated at the slightest (to my mind, anyway) provocation. Those days are rough on everybody, including poor Maya.

Moodiness aside, Maya continues to astound us with her delightful sense of humor. For instance, a few weeks back she and I started this game where she’d point to me and say, “Toonces?” and I’d say, “No, silly! I’m Mommy!” She’ll point to Seth and call him Ndugu; she’ll point to Toonces and call her Mommy—you get the idea. And she loves it when we do the whole faux-outrage routine, as in, “What?! No no no! I am NOT a kitty-cat! I am MOMMY!”

More evidence of Maya’s sense of humor: Ask her if she likes pizza. Or kitty-cats. Or cookies. Or Elmo. Then, when she says “Yeah!” say an incredulous “Nuh-uh!” Oh, man. She’ll laugh for days.

This morning Maya was requesting cheek zerberts from her daddy, who unfortunately could not oblige, being that he was at work and all. Sometimes when I give her tummy zerberts, she’ll laugh for a bit, then she’ll tire of it all and pronounce, “No zerberts.” I’ll try to sneak one more in, and she’ll cry, and then I’ll feel like the Meanest Mom Ever.

Other recent accomplishments of note:

• She can count items with a real sense of quantity. She’ll point to four items and count them: “One, two, three, four.”
• She continues to string short sentences together: “What doing, Mommy?” “Where crayon go?” “Ndugu sleeping!”
• She’s really into the mothering thing right now. We seem to always be putting diapers on Elmo and her two baby dolls, and Maya usually has one of her babies sitting in her old highchair with a little toy cup or plate on the tray. Maya is also a fan of putting her dolls and stuffed Elmos to bed.
• She’s getting very good at remembering people’s names and knowing who everyone is. In our apartment complex, for instance, she can identify and name Eileen, Marion, and their daughter Leilani; the new baby next door (“Baby Alysen”); and the woman across the way (also an Allison, but spelled more traditionally). She knows who my friend Jenna is and can name just about everybody in our photographs on the fridge, including long-distance friend Lucy Rehmert.

Here's ten typical minutes with Maya these days:
"What doing, Mommy?"
"Mommy's putting on mascara, Maya."
"Ma-care-uh."
"Yes, mascara."
"What doing, Mommy?"
"Mommy's putting on mascara, Maya."
"What doing, Mommy?"
"Mommy is still putting on mascara, Maya."
(grabbing mascara tube) "Mine."
"No, Honey. The mascara is Mommy's." (takes it from Maya's hand)
"Mine!"
"No, it isn't. It's Mommy's. Thank you."
"What doing, Mommy?"
"Still applying my mascara, Maya."
"Where Daddy go?"
"Daddy's at work today. You'll see him later."
"Where Daddy go?"
"Like I said, Daddy's at work today. You'll see him later."
"What doing, Mommy?"

And the thing is, she will not be ignored! If I try to go a few seconds without responding to one of her queries, she repeats it again (and again), growing increasingly annoyed with me for not answering. I suspect this is because I got in the habit early on of always responding to her when she spoke, to encourage her to talk (ha!), so now she expects a response every time. Oops. Anyway, on days I'm home with her, I get physically exhausted from talking with her ALL DAY LONG. By the time Seth gets home, I just want to be silent for awhile. I'm not complaining---I love that Maya is becoming ever more verbal and communicative with each passing day. It's fun and amazing and helpful to our relationship. I'm just saying that it wears me out!

Lately Maya likes us to build tunnels for her. We make them out of living-room furniture and blankets. Of course, the time it takes to create a tunnel is about triple the time Maya actually plays in it, but still, for the period of time she's enjoying it, it's great fun to watch!

Maya's also really into putting caps onto their respective items. Examples: pen caps, toothpaste caps, water-bottle caps. Removing and replacing caps is a challenge she really focuses on. I like to see her so concentrated on a task like that. I try not to rush in and do it for her when she gets frustrated.

Maya's adorableness seems to be at an all-time high right now. (I realize I've said this before, but I guess she just keeps outdoing herself in the Cuteness department.)

She's just this really lovely mix of curious, affectionate, goofy, active, fun, mischeivous, innocent, and sweet. When people say they love kids, I think this is what they're talking about.

This morning, for instance, Maya woke me up by shouting for Daddy from her crib. "Daddy! Daddy! Daaaaaady! DaddyDaddyDaddyDaddy!" and so on and so forth, until I stumbled sleepily into her room and greeted her. (She did seem mildly disappointed to see me, not Daddy. But she got over it.) Then, she looked at me and asked, "Doo-doo? Pat? Kisses?" Which means, "May I please pat Ndugu and give him kisses?"

She's speaking in short sentences now. We hear a lot of "Daddy, what doing?" and "Where Toonces go?" My favorite is her "Where...is?" construction, as in, "Where cookie is?"

She's also singing along to "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Fortunately, she seems to prefer the Ella Fitzgerald version of "Jingle Bells," which is indeed a good one, so I don't mind hearing it dozens of times per day.

Seth is soooo super-excited to present Maya with her new tricycle this Christmas. Since Friday night Seth has been asking me if we can just give Maya her trike before Christmas, because he can't wait to take her to the park to use it. I have to remind Seth that Santa isn't FedEx. He doesn't do early deliveries! The trike will appear under the tree the evening of December 24, and no sooner.
:-)

We hear endless demands for cookies around our apartment these days. It seems we may have inadvertently taught Maya during the flights to and from Albany last month that cookies are infinitely available to her at any time of day upon request.

Oops.

Now we are paying the price.

7:30 a.m.: "Cookies?"

9:15 a.m., immediately after breakfast: "Cookies?"

11:30 a.m., as I slice her an apple for a snack: "Cookies?"

Lunchtime: "Cookies?"

4:00 p.m., on waking from nap: "Cookies?"

Dinnertime: "Cookies?"

Bedtime: "Cookies? Crackers? Cookies? Cookies?"

Sigh.

Sometimes you can even see the Cookie Switch in her brain turn on when she's thumbing through her Sesame Street coloring books and comes across a page with Cookie Monster on it. "Cookie Monster!" she'll shout. Then, "...cookie, Mommy?"

It's hard, when your child is small and "underweight," to hold the line on doling out snacks. But hold the line we must, else we risk creating a junkfood maven who will devour nothing but Pirate's Booty and animal crackers for the rest of her life. In our desire to bring Maya's weight up to speed, we are in danger of actually preparing her to be overweight later in life. We have to be careful!

Other Maya news: We really feel like we've got a true, whole, very communicative little person living with us these days, and it's (mostly) super-fun! She's putting phrases together, such as "Read to!" (for "read to me") and "Mommy, bite?" (for "Mommy, may I please ignore what's on my highchair tray and take several enormous bites of your dinner instead?")

Another really cool thing is her blossoming awareness of events going on around her. On our arrival at LAX after Thanksgiving, Maya noticed two adults hugging outside a taxicab on the curb and announced "Hugs." She points to other kids wailing away at Target and says, "Baby crying." At the farmers' market last Thursday night, she spotted a balloon floating way up high in the sky, just a little orange speck, and cried, "Bloon!" It's exciting having two-way conversations with Maya now, and not simply keeping up a one-sided monologue all the time. (It can be so wearying narrating out loud all day long for a baby!)

Maya's loving the new stepstool we got her from Target. She "helps" drag it into the bathroom twice a day to stand on while brushing her teeth. We shelled out for the two-step stool, because it's the only stool that gets her up high enough to actually reach the faucet. She also likes to sit on it while her daddy puts on her shoes for her. (Seth pretends he's a shoe salesman while he does this. "Plenty of room in the toe, ma'am? Can I get you a larger size? I've got plenty of fives but I'm out of four-and-a-halves...")

Maya is also loving Baby Carla, known simply as Baby around here. Baby is my old Cabbage Patch Kid "preemie" from 20-some years ago, lovingly cleaned up and presented to Maya by my mom (hi, Mom!) while we were home for Thanksgiving. Maya feeds Baby. Maya offers Baby some juice. Maya puts Baby "night-night." This morning, Maya gave Baby a "bath" in her old tub. It's all very fun to watch.

Less fun to watch are the mini-tantrums, which come on suddenly and for no apparent reason whatsoever. They freak me out and make me worry: Is Maya in pain? Is something horribly wrong and I just can't see it? What the hell is going on here?

But mostly, life with Toddler Diva Maya is full of laughter and joy!

A photo from Thursday, November 15, 2007:

Maya turns 20 months in three days!
This morning at work, a coworker visited with her 11-week old newborn daughter, and I was struck by how little and helpless and immobile the baby was. (It was all perfectly normal newborn behavior, of course!) I can hardly remember when Maya was that teeny and new---it's so weird how you forget ages and stages as the child gets bigger and older and more capable. I wish I'd begun this Mayalstones blog back when she was a day old! Of course, I could barely drag my exhausted, fresh-from-delivery self to the shower back then, much less to the computer, so I guess I can forgive myself.
Now then, here's what's new in Mayaworld:
First, I am very concerned about her lead levels because I performed a home lead test on a few of her most-used toys and found one that contains lead. (I called the test manufacturer twice to confirm the results.) As I type this, I have a call into the pediatrician to more or less insist that we get Maya's blood tested for lead. The doctor has declined to test Maya's blood for lead in the past; here's hoping she's willing to change her tune now that I have some scientific evidence that Maya has had some lead exposure.
In happier news, Maya's bronchitis seems to be gradually receding, thanks to the Horrid Pink Meds we've been forcing on her twice per day. Actually, we no longer have to force the Amoxicillin on her; she's pretty OK with willingly taking it, so long as we clap and cheer and do high-fives after each swallow. I also mime that I'm taking the medicine first, and she seems to enjoy watching Mommy put the syringe to her lips and fake-push the plunger. Whatever works, right?!
Maya's language development continues to grow. She's picked up a few little phrases, including, "Thank you, Mommy!" (no matter whom she's thanking), "What doing?" and "Where going?" She also communicates what she's seeing more and more frequently. For instance, she'll point to Toonces sleeping on our bed and say, "night night, baby." (Not sure why "baby" instead of "kitty cat," but we get the idea.) She looooves pointing out dirt on the kitchen floor. A-hem.
She asks questions, such as "Pat?" while looking at one of the cats, as in, "May I please pat Ndugu?" She asks to watch "Bump baby high" about three dozen times per day, which is Mayaspeak for our Sesame Street Beginnings "Make Music Together" DVD. (Her favorite segment is the one where Baby Elmo is bouncing on his daddy's lap. Part of the song goes, "Bump-bump baby high! Bump-bump baby low.") We try to avoid turning on the television until the afternoon, which does not stop Maya from asking for it all morning long.
I am also thrilled to report that Maya also asks to hear the song from the Sound of Music soundtrack that goes, "Doe, a deer, a female deer..." many many times during the day, too! She can sing a LOT of it. Like this: "Doe...deer...deer. Ray...suuuuuuuuuun. Me...name...seff. Fa...run!" The kid LOVES TO SING. She does some songs from school that we don't recognize. Something about Jesus and a boat, I think? Another one about elephants.
Last time we were at the doctor's office, Maya weighed in at 22 pounds. She's still petite, but she doesn't look unhealty or out of proportion or anything. She has a very tiny waist, and I think she's just small-boned. Her hair is to her shoulders, and we still haven't cut her any bangs. I'm feeling sort of anti-bangs right now, so I just pull her hair back in a little half ponytail each day---or sometimes pigtails. Her hair is wavy (like her mom and dad's).
We're having some sleep issues these days and are trying to get through them as a family. S and I are looking for and testing out some creative solutions, trying to find the right approach for Maya and ourselves. Please wish us luck! None of us handles sleep deprivation well. At all.

Maya's latest achievement is one of her most charming to date: repeating our most-used expressions and phrases back to us. She's been saying a lot of "There you go!" and "See?" and "I know, I know" and "Yup!" The really fantastic thing is that she uses them correctly! She'll present me with one of her shoes, for instance, and say, "There you go!"
She also understands more of what we say than we realize. Yesterday Maya was pointing to Ndugu and shouting, "Ndugu! Ndugu!" and just to make (what he thought would be one-sided) conversation, Seth goes, "Right. And what's our other cat's name?" And Maya answers, "Toonces," and Seth nearly fell over, he was so floored. (Although, she kind of compresses the double-o vowel sound, so it sounds more like "Tnces.")
She also has started using the word "home" to announce where we are when we arrive back to the apartment after an outing, and she understands the concepts of two items: Interestingly, she'll point to two items in succession and say, "two, one," instead of "one, two." I'm pretty sure this is my fault, because she first became aware of numbers when I started doing "three, two, one, blastoff!" in the mornings when taking her down from the diaper-changing table. Oh well. The teachers at school can clean up my mess later on down the road.
:-)

Maya turns 19 months old in a few days! I can't believe how close she's getting to two. Two! I remember when the one-year mark seemed far, far away.
Maya is delightful these days (when she's not throwing a tantrum or whining). She loves nothing more than to help Mommy or Dada with a chore or a task. All we have to say is, "Maya, could you please help us with something?" and she comes running. Her favorite tasks are helping to unload the dishwasher, helping load/unload the clothes washer and dryer, throwing things in the trash, and putting groceries away on the (lower) shelves of the refrigerator.
We are pleased that finally, finally her face rash is starting to clear, thanks to some new cream prescribed by a dermatologist. However, we noticed today that she woke up with two unrelated-looking, new, strange little blemishes that look like zits: one on her cheek, and one on her hand. We'll watch them to see what happens.
Maya is still spending what seems like the majority of her day singing. A few times this week, when I was singing "Edelweiss" to her before bed, she chimed in and sang a few words with me. I was thrilled and so proud! One of my not-so-secret agendas is to instill in Maya a love of "The Sound of Music" so that we can enjoy both the film and the soundtrack together for the rest of our lives and drive Seth crazy! Next summer I plan to bring Maya with me to the Hollywood Bowl's Sound of Music sing-a-long and costume parade.
Oh! That reminds me: Today at Target we found two potential Halloween costumes for Maya. We bought both and will return whichever one fits the worst. We found a fairy costume and a cheerleader costume. (The latter comes with pom-poms.)
Maya has learned her possessives: She'll point to something, like a coffee mug, and say "mama's." She'll point to neighbor Leilani's stroller and say "baby's." She can join in when we count slowly to ten, and she knows a portion of the ABC song (the "L-M-N-O-P" part).
Maya's sense of humor is in full bloom. She'll often put her fork on her head during dinner and announce, "Hat!" She looooooves to be tickled (unlike her mom) and to squeeze my nose or Seth's to hear us say "Honk!" She also thinks it's great fun to "fool" us by saying "Night night!" and curling up on the floor to fake sleep. That Maya. What a kidder.

This week, Maya has been doing and saying so many new things, I'm just in awe of this brilliant little person that is our daughter. I've even been getting a little teary-eyed on my way to work in the mornings, thinking of how far she's come and how accomplished she is at the teeny little age of 18 months.

Last night, for example, at the dinner table, Maya very matter-of-factly grasped her fork and started scooping up couscous with it and gracefully brought the couscous to her mouth as if she'd been doing that for years. I could not help but bust out a big grin and some praise for her, and she just looked at me like, "What? We're all civilized human beings here. We use utensils. Carry on, Mom. Your couscous is getting cold."

Secondly, this morning I walked into Maya's room to get her, and I had some diapers in my hands, and Maya clear as a bell announced, "Diapers! Diapers!" I was surprised and delighted because it's not as if we'd been trying to teach her the word "diaper." It's one she just absorbed and picked up on her own, apparently, and she said it back to me for the first time this morning.

Finally, as I was lifting her out of her crib this morning to change her diaper and generally get going with our day, Maya urgently said, "Doggie! Doggie!" So I grabbed her stuffed bulldog out of her crib and gave it to her, and she gave it a hug and kiss. Then, she returned it to me, saying "thank you!" And I realized, Wow, she just wanted to give her doggie a little love before leaving him for the day. That's a really human, sweet thing to do. It really floored me.

It's funny how we all have a general idea of how babies grow into children and how children grow into adults, but the thrill of watching that development in person, in your own home, is really unequalled, I think.

Maya is a little songbird. It's getting to the point now where I can figure out what songs they're teaching her at daycare by the little bits she sings at home. For instance, yesterday Maya spontaneously cupped one hand over the other, swung her arms back and forth, and sang, "baby bumbabee..." which I instantly recognized as that "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee" song! So I said, "Oh, Mama knows that one too, Maya!" and I started singing it, which got her very excited, and the rest of the day, Maya would catch my eye and start singing, "baby bumbabee..." to get me to join in. She loves the part that goes, "Ow! He stung me!" She also sings bits of that Skidamarink song ("Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink, skidamarink-a-doo. I love you!"), Twinkle Twinkle, and Itsy-Bitsy Spider. The really impressive thing is that when she sings her little bits of these songs, she's almost pitch-perfect. It really astounds Seth and me.
From what I can tell and what the teachers at St. Michael's tell me, Maya loooooooves music and singing. And when she does her little dances, it's very, very adorable.
I have to admit something: I love kids' songs. I mean, not the stupid ones, like the Barney theme song, but the good ones and the classics. Half the time when I play kids' songs for Maya, I'm actually doing it for my own enjoyment. Hee hee.
Maya is also running now. Hoo-boy. She recently spent about ten minutes tearing up and down the aisles of Borders book store, making somewhat loud "woo!" noises as she ran. She also does this thing that resembles the beginning of a somersault: She bends at the waist and peeks between her legs, with her head upside-down.
Oh! I nearly forgot to mention her most-funny new vocab addition: "Yeah." She'll say it while vigorously nodding her head. An example:
Me: "Maya, would you like a cookie?"
Maya: "Yeah!" (nods enthusiastically)

On the flip side, Maya throws brief, mini-tantrums when she's hellbent against doing something. She bends into a backward "C" shape and cries angrily. The good news is that these episodes don't last long. She can be distracted out of them.

Here are some recent additions to Maya's vocabulary:

arm

cheeks

toes

nice (picked up at daycare)

eggs (her favorite breakfast)

block

star

box

milk

dirt

Cheerios

crackers

Maya is also beginning to figure out the shape sorter, trying to jump (she has yet to get fully airborne), and singing snippets of "Twinkle, Twinkle." She seems to maybe be developing a bit of an attachment to two stuffed animals: the English bulldog some friends got her for her first birthday, and the all-white (and all-natural-fibers) dog that Jack and Beth Hoadley sent her when she was a baby. Watching her spontaneously kiss that little bulldog will just dissolve your heart into a warm, sludgey ooze.

Hello. Here are some new things Maya is doing these days:

1. She's marching. At first I didn't know what she was saying or what, exactly, was going on when she'd shout "Mock!" and start walking around with one leg kicking up real high in a cartoon-like manner. Then, one afternoon, I played her a kids' song about dinosaurs, and during the chorus ("We are the dinosaurs marching, marching...") she started up with the "Mock!" and the crazy leg. Hee! That's when I put two and two together.

2. Maya is saying "Up! Up!" when she wants to be held or when she needs assistance climbing some furniture.

3. She can climb up and down stairs unassisted (and without crawling) if there is a handrail at her level.

4. She now seems to kind of understand the meaning of "I love you" when she or someone else says it.

5. She and her dad have this game: Seth lies down on the floor, on his back. Maya climbs onto his tummy, straddles it while facing him, then just bounces up and down maniacally, while laughing her fool head off. Seth gets a little beat up (and nauseated) in the process, but he seems to think it's worth it for the fun value.

6. Maya is trying out facial expressions. She does this truly hilarious one where she narrows her eyes to slits, then rolls them way over to one side, like she's a lookout for a bank robbery and is trying not to be too obvious. I have no idea where this came from. The other expression she's been working on is one I like to call "Mom Is Not Amused," which is quite obviously an imitation of me looking annoyed. She basically knits her teeny little blond eyebrows together and frowns.

Photos from the wedding we attended this past weekend.

(The baby I'm holding is Leilani, our neighbors' daughter.)

Maya is beginning to speak in full sentences! Lately, she's tacking "It's" and "It's a" onto the front of nouns, so we end up hearing a lot of "It's a ball! It's Elmo! It's Ndugu!" She can also say "I love you," which is guaranteed to melt your heart into a big, soupy puddle of mush. Of course, I can't get her to say any of these things on camera, which is driving me nuts. As soon as I turn on the camcorder, she clams up and becomes intent on replacing the lens cap or looking at herself in the viewfinder screen.

Maya is also entering that awesome and entirely too short-lived stage of Toddler Helpfulness. Yay! Yesterday I spilled an entire pint of strawberries, and Maya industriously squatted down to help me pick them up. If it's time to change Maya's diaper, I can say, "Maya, please bring Mama a diaper," and she'll do it. It's really fun to involve her in little tasks this way, and I believe it's a good way to give her attention and make her feel accomplished. This morning I tasked Maya with carrying her little totebag all the way to school, and she did it!

Also, Maya is getting so big! I mean, she's still smallish for her age, but her little legs are lengthening. I notice her full-length pants are fitting her more like capris these days. We think lots more teeth are on the way, too. She's pretty cranky lately, and waking up at night crying, and greeting me in the morning with a chin dripping with drool.

Oh! Speaking of teeth, Maya now brushes her teeth like a big girl. She and I stand in the bathroom together and brush our respective choppers. Seth and I are still teaching Maya proper technique, as Maya would rather gnaw on the bristles than actually brush. (Although, I'm not too worried. I think even chewing on the bristles probably helps clean those teeny little pearly-whites of hers.) Maya loooooves brushing her teeth. She begs to do it during the day by shouting, "Teeth! Teeth! Teeth!" and bursting into tears when we tell her she'll have to wait till after dinner.

Maya is a (very young) woman who knows what she wants. And what she wants is Sesame Street. And a soft pretzel from Target. And to be put down. And some water. And some cheese. And her shoes. And to see the baby upstairs. And Dada. She is in the alternately annoying and endearing toddler habit of repeating the names of things she wants all day, every day. "Elmo. Pretzel. Down. Wa-wa. Geeze. Shoes. Baby. Dada." Offer Maya something she does not want, and she will emphatically bat it out of your hand and insist, "No! No! Noooo!"

One one hand, it's really wonderful to be communicating back and forth with our little bug. On the other hand, we are forced to disappoint her, all day long, by telling her she can't have what she wants. For instance, I can't produce a Target soft pretzel right here in our living room. I'm not going to play three hours of Sesame Street for Maya on the television. It is physically impossible to go see the baby upstairs this week, because that baby is in Florida with her parents. Poor Maya. She's constantly being let down!

It kind of makes me realize how luxurious it is to be an adult, able to act on most of my wants and needs, or at least console myself when I know I can't have them. I'm not forever relying on someone else to decide whether I can or can't get what I want. If I crave a tasty chunk of extra-sharp cheddar, well then, I'll just walk myself to the fridge and get one. And even if I know I can't have Target's cinnamon-sugar pretzel right at this very moment, I can reassure myself that I will buy one next time I'm there.

Anyway, despite my little groans and gripes about Maya's typical toddler behavior, I actually really love the toddler stage so far. It's so much fun and so rewarding watching my little baby grow into an actual---if small---person. She's trying to take an active role in her own life, just as she should be, and she's getting understandably irritated when her attempts are thwarted. Good for her! And really, it's nearly impossible for me to get too mad at someone in golden-blond pigtails.

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!

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!