Maia Battle Report: Year 2 Month 3

Maia has grown about an inch since her 2nd birthday and is now solidly over 23 pounds. She is learning about the days of the week and starting to recognize letters and numbers in isolation. She still counts "1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10", but I prefer to think that she's just experimenting with exponents in some advanced way. She's starting to gain spatial awareness too -- when I told her we were going to drive to the grocery store, she said, "We gonna pass Maia's school!". She recognizes the outside of restaurants without prompting, based on the type of cartoon cup her milk comes in. "WE AT THE VEE! I GONNA GET DINOSAUR CUP."

"Just for 2s" school is going well: Maia has made art representing A for Ant and B for Bird, as well as the obligatory handprint poem and an "All About Me" pizza. In terms of activities, she regularly gets out into nature through "Free Forest School" with Rebecca on Fridays and "Free Activities With No One Dad Has To Talk To" every afternoon with me. She has also gone fishing in the park with her friend, Nolan, and family.

Maia is at the stage where crying is super cute rather than grating -- there have been no true tantrums for a long time, and her disappointment usually fades quickly. At bedtime and naptime, her hour-long story hour before falling asleep persists, but is now intelligible. For the most part, she makes up stories using bits and pieces of her day. I try to write choice phrases on the whiteboard and am hoping to commit one afternoon to a full transcription for fun. Among the things I've heard so far from the confines of her crib:

• "I gonna do numbers. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10! 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10! 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10!"
• *clap clap* "I clappin' my hands."
• "Here come the cats. Those cats came on a boat! Helloooo, cats!"
• "I fishin'. Cast! Cast! I caught a fish!"
• "This unicorn is smiling!"
• "Christmas Cat standing on Snoopy. He tall!"

Life is going very well for the rest of us. I have a great schedule at work where I can pick assignments that best fit my available time where I think I can contribute the most. I'm starting to reserve more time for exercise and relaxing in the afternoons and am definitely not as tired in the evenings as I was in the first two years of Maia.

I don't grill as much as I once did because broiling is so much easier with a toddler underfoot. I may experience the shame of having a propane tank last longer than a year for the first time in the history of grilling.

How are your genetic heirs doing?