Another Daycare Lesson

Maya got another great review from daycare on Friday. It was something like:

"Maya did a good job using words instead of tears today. And she asked a friend to 'walk away.' We've been working on that."

They've apparently been working on "conflict resolution" at day care recently.

Maya tried it out at home this weekend.

Me: "Maya, you have to get in your car seat" (followed by significant wrestling of the child into the car seat...)
Maya: "Walk away, mommy, walk away."

This morning, Maya was propping up one of her books against a wall. Audrey's dogs were visiting, and one walked over to sniff the book. Maya: "Walk away, Simba, walk away."

On Intelligence

OK. So she's not two yet. But it is so fascinating to watch the kid learn. Maya's learning to count to 10. Last week, she skipped 4 almost every time and usually replaced 8 with 2. (Why? I'm so interested.) Anyway, this week, she's perfect almost every time. And she LOVES getting to 10. She yells it at the top of her lungs.

And at bathtime tonight, she clearly pointed at two ducks sitting on the side of the tub and said "my ducks." OK, perhaps that doesn't seem impressive, but we hadn't talked about them at all yet, and she managed to make the word plural all on her own. It struck me as intriguing to wonder how we learn these things. (A couple of minutes later, she clearly pointed at a different duck sitting all by itself, and said "my duck.")

And finally, I discovered tonight when we were reading the alphabet book (which, much to Maya's dismay is actually Tim's Sesame Street Alphabet book, and so it's old enough not to include Elmo...), I discovered that Maya actually knows about a third of her alphabet. Where does she get this stuff?!?!

Maya's Day Care Report

Today's report from her teacher:

"I think Maya's favorite word is officially 'NO'."

My response: "just today?"

Who Dressed Me?

Here's what Maya was wearing when I picked her up today. In Tim's defense, he did call me and ask what bottoms went with the "green turtle shirt." I didn't realize that he was talking about a dress... Check out the socks and sandals, too, though...

The Storm of the Century (Apparently)

I had to go out of town for work this past Wednesday. My dad picked Maya up at daycare for us, and they planned to meet Tim for dinner. When dad caught sight of the storm outside, though, he canceled dinner, and tried for home with Maya. Unfortunately, they got caught up in the hail, and dad's car took quite a beating. The way he tells it, though, Maya was completely unfazed by the loud noise. Here's what was waiting in the backyard when Tim got home:

I did have to fly out over the storm, and it was far from the smoothest plane ride I've had...

Vacation in the Smokies

For Spring break we went on a no-work vacation for the entire week. We went out to Tennessee, rented a cabin, and did a variety of shopping, hiking, driving, site seeing, and sitting. :) My parents and Ron and JoAnn came along also, and I think we all had a stupendous time. Here are some snippets of our trip.

Here's the view from the porch of our cabin:



The first day, Ron and JoAnn were still on their way in, so Tim, Maya, mom, dad, and I went out to petting zoo. We got a chance to feed goats, reindeer, camels, horses, zebras, and some other things I appear to have forgotten. They also had some kangaroos and wallabies. Maya loved feeding the reindeer.



The second day, Tim, dad, and Ron went on the Ramsey Cascades hike (4 miles in, 4 miles back, 2000 foot elevation change). I hear it was beautiful, but taxing:





The ladies went on a shopping trip and stopped for tea:



On Wednesday, we all went together to Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore. Our friend Jamie drove out from Charlotte to meet us:





Thursday we went to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg (which was suprisingly impressive), and then Tim and I went on a short hike along the Appalachian trail. In the evening, we all went to the Dixie Stampede.






Friday, dad and Ron played golf. Tim did an 11 mile historical walk through the park; mom, JoAnn, Maya, and I did the same thing in the car. :) Then the group of us did an "easy" hike (it was paved) up to a different waterfall.





Saturday, we all headed different directions. Tim, Maya, and I drove through the park to North Carolina and on to see our friends Jamie and Richard in Charlotte. On Sunday, they took us to the US National Whitewater Center (where the US olympians train). We had a great visit with them and then headed home Sunday afternoon.

Our Little Texan (Or "Don't Tell Tim")

Maya and I were making pizza last night, and listening to a little music. When Sara Evans came on singing "Suds in the Bucket" Maya went nuts. She was bopping and dancing all over. She even threw in a "Yee haw" in response to one in the song, no kidding. (It's hard to blame her; if you haven't heard the song, it's hard not to at least tap your foot...)

Tim would be horrified.