42 months.

maya @ 42 months :: may 4, 2009

• when we used the compost for planting our garden, maya discovered the wonders of the earthworm. she digs them up from the compost and carries one around the backyard. she continues to try to bring them into the house, but the threat of the earthworm's demise convinces her to return the worm to the earth.
• her people drawings now have more hair, appendages sticking out of the head, and more details like eyelashes. i suspect she'll start drawing torsos very soon.
• there's been improvement on writing her name. if she gives herself enough room she spells her name correctly in capital letters, but if she runs out of space she puts the last "a" in front of the "m" so she becomes "amay."
• she's a pasta-freak.
• she had a good time at her "boyfriend" domenic's birthday party. apparently, domenic threw a fit when he found out maya's invitation went to the wrong girl. good thing rupert was willing to take her to the party at the last minute instead of going to the festival of books with me and ian.
• she says she wants to cut her hair like mine but i wonder what would happen if we actually took her to a haircut place?
• she's finally completely potty-trained! no more accidents! and wakes up on her own in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom! yay!

41 months.

maya @ 41 months :: april 4, 2009

• is really getting into the powerpuff girls dvd. she would totally shake her booty during the song between episodes. she doesn't seem to like mojo jojo very much.
• to delay bedtime even more, not only does she come out of her room at least twice to go potty, but she insists that she's scared of "bears, ghosts, witches, and mojo jojo." i have to tell her that the mommy bear, mommy ghost, and mommy witch have sent their kids to bed already and maya is the only one still awake and she better get her butt into bed.
• she's cutting with scissors quite well now. but i have to remember to tie her hair back when she uses scissors so she doesn't accidentally snip off some of the hair that's dangling in front of her face like she did the other day.
• loves to sing songs. now that i've lifted my own ban of singing to her in english she's really gotten into "old mcdonald had a farm." she also makes up songs, although the lyrics usually consist of her repeating one word (maybe two) over and over again [see below].
• identifying letters everywhere we go; a good sign that eventually she will, in fact, learn to read despite our earlier worries.
• got a new pony stuffed animal while we were staying in ojai. she named it "beauty" all on her own -- it's black.
• loves her friend domenic at school. so much that she sings a song about him incessantly if reminded about him at home. the song is just her repeating "domenic" over and over again in a semi-melodious way.
• so happy that her uncle aaron and auntie anne visited for grumpa's 60th birthday.
• she still whines but i think she's getting better. i truly believe it's helping that i'm interacting and parenting in a much calmer way. i rarely raise my voice at her and i try my best to explain everything to her in a clear and simple way. she responds positively to this and seems to be making an effort to follow my directions. now, her relationship with rupert, on the other hand ...
• but there are days when she is very liberal with her out-of-the-blue "mama, i love you!"s, which does make my day.
• drawing people with bodies (a line) and, on occasion, arms, but still no legs.
• loves animals (cats, especially) and is enjoying looking at her animal encyclopedia and identifying the ones she knows.
• when rupert pulled out the chinese take-out menu she immediately said she wanted, "chicken and bwok-li, and two rices." um, maybe we get take-out too often?
• her teacher said she has perfectionist tendencies, which really surprised me. i totally thought she would be more laid back and relaxed than ian (we're having some issues with him), but it appears she cares very much about her work being just right. the poor kids take after me ... on the bright side, her teacher did say she's doing quite well in most other areas of her school work. this particular teacher calls her maita, which is so cute and true!
• potty training is definitely not complete :: she'll go quite a few days withouth an accident and then she'll have several days of accidents in a row, especially while she's sleeping. we just have to keep working at it.
• she has a thing for wednesday; maybe she just likes to say it?