Whatchya doing?

August 22, 2002

Dear Maya,

Another month of rich development.  Your language reflects conceptual growth.  I’ll give you a few for instances.

• You look in the hamper and if there’s nothing in it (a rare moment), you’ll say, “it’s empty.”
• If someone is doing something unfamiliar to you you’ll say, “whatchya doing?”

You also love to take inventory of people or things verbally.  Like at the end of a meal, “daddy all done?  Adin all done?  mommy all done? Maya all done?”  And when you wake up in the morning, “where’s Adin?  Where’s daddy?  Where’s Sasha?” …who incidentally we saw off at the airport a couple of days ago, so according to you, right now she went “bye bye” and is still flying around in a plane!

It is super clear that your element of learning is by others modeling for you.  I so often chuckle by how you are constantly in Adin’s shadow, doing everything he does (or attempting to).  I had to laugh when you saw that (because I had a bad allergy day), I was forever blowing my nose, creating wet tissues.  You had a little routine of taking a tissue to our bathroom sink, standing on the toilet, you’d turn on the faucet and wet the tissue.  You’d then come into my room with the wet tissue and make blowing nose blowing sounds into it and then “throw it in the ga-bage.”  This happened five or six times until you slid and fell on the wet floor in the bathroom.  Ouch!  And what a sweetie!

You’ve always been a climber.  The other day, it was too quiet for a while.  I found you in your room.  You discovered by moving the stool to your dresser, you could step on the little ledge at the bottom, then use the little knobs and whatever lips were sticking out from any drawers to climb to your dresser top.  There I found you with almost the entire second shelf emptied on to the floor.  You were standing there in your glory, one by one, throwing books and toys onto the floor.  You were so happy and proud.  I couldn’t get upset; I needed to smile along with you.

Once you get use to the water, you love to be in it.  At Moriello Pool, you love the kiddie pool, but you also get into a routine of jumping off the ledge in four feet water where someone catches you.

You continue to be open to people we trust.  You befriend our friends.  You’ll choose them over us, even if we (daddy or me) are around.  For example, we went on a hike to Bonticou (by the way, you did much of the climbing yourself).  When at the top, you kept on asking for “Dindy” (Cindy) to hold your hand or help you.  You chose her as your buddy.  And the other day at the pool, you wanted Ellen to catch you and hold you, even with Tuli in her arms, rather than me or daddy.

We just saw Grammy and Pop who adore you thoroughly.  You won their hearts and make their day.  Grammy says that her grandchildren are her “best anti-depressant”.

As I mentioned, Sasha just left after being here for a month.  You just love “Sasa”.  You also can be a bit of a nudge to her…going through her things in her room and trying to touch her “nursies”, etc.  But I guess that is all part of having a big sister.

Speaking of “nursies”, I just threw out the last of my nursing bras.  It’s really the ending of an era for me.  Thankfully, our bond is as strong as ever.  You are a true hugger, cuddler and affectionate toddler.  I love having this scrumptious physical contact with you.  And yes, you love to slip your hand in my shirt to “touch my nursies.”

Sweet dreams,

Mommy