Maia Battle Report: Year 2 Month 7

Maia is another month older and wiser. She talks all the time and invents brand new sentences based on established concepts.

• "We ever been here before, daddy?" - said when we go somewhere that we haven't been to in awhile.
• "Don't say that, daddy!" - said when she doesn't like the song I'm inventing or I'm saying something that isn't true. She uses conjunctions like "don't" when talking to others but consistently uses "do not" when expressing her own thoughts and opinions.
• "Maybeeee..." - said when she knows that there are multiple options to answer a questsion but expects you to list the options before she makes a decision.
• "This is a bunk house!" - said when I added a 2nd floor to her house built out of blocks

Maia doesn't really want to watch TV anymore except for an occasional episode of Superwings. She will choose play time over TV time consistently, and often selects play time over ice cream as well. Naptime has become "poop and quiet time". She has napped only about 5 times since the beginning of 2020 but is content to play in her room by herself for 2 hours while everyone else recharges. Her primary activity these days is to build houses for bunnies out of foam yoga mat pieces and foam blocks.

She is enamoured with her Original Bunny and seems to live vicariously through it at all times -- she may not want me to Nose-Frida the snot out of her nose, but she'll let bunny do it. She doesn't want to go to the restaurant, but bunny will go (and she follows implicitly, of course). If I'm not careful, an entire afternoon can go by where I do nothing but draw more bunnies on scratch paper.

She is also excelling at puzzles, easily doing 12 - 24 piece puzzles, sometimes with the back facing up. She always puts on a show for the very last piece, crying out, "Where's the last piece at!?" to make sure you're paying attention before flourishing it into position.

We're getting ready to sign her up for pre-school through Loudoun County, which will entail 2 mornings per week for 3-4 hours each morning in the Fall. She visited the school twice and enjoyed the classrooms, mainly the sensory rice boxes.