Maia Battle Report: Year 2 Month 11

Maia is now just 1 month away from being 3 years old. Weighing in at 27 pounds and standing 33" tall, she's still comfortably fitting into her two-year-old clothes.

She has a huge vocabulary and understands moderately complex concepts (last month she saw a spider web and asked, "What do spiders use to make the webs?") but still does not pronounce the 2nd consonant in a pair of consonants (we often mishear "cows" vs. "clouds"). She's said a few clever things so far, but nothing worth retelling (the setup would be longer than the punchline in each case). After a recent trip to the forest, she remembered something she had seen and her face lit up as she said, "WE SAW SOME DEER!" -- she acted more like a kindergartner than a 2-year-old then. She's also very empathetic, and will ask Rebecca how her food tastes or ask to set aside something to send to one of her friends.

Quarantine continues to drag on, but Maia has been able to see her best friend, Nolan, twice in supervised outdoor visits. She's over video chats but will wave at whoever's on the chat before disappearing into the next room. It recently got warm enough to set up the kiddie pool on the screen porch, which is an amazing way to burn a few hours in the morning or afternoon. Indoors, she's an expert at any search-and-find activity, to the point where I'm considering buying her a Where's Waldo? book. Dress-up is a new craze, with a box full of Halloween cast-offs. She spent this weekend as Sister Bear Minnie Mouse.

On TV, she likes watching Super Wings, Daniel Tiger, and short segments of Disney movies like Cars and Moana (especially the 30 minute "Coronation Day" sequence in Let It Go that hits all of the most familiar songs). She's still young enough that she would rather rewatch things already seen than try to follow the plot of a movie all the way through. Everything gets reenacted at bedtime. Last night, she yelled, "I am Moana!!" over and over.

I just asked Maia what she wants to do after she turns 3 next month, and she said, "I will put on my dog hat." Everyone should have such life ambitions.