Girl Talk

A few weeks back one of Maya's classmates asked for Maya's phone number so she could call Maya at home. This girl is also in the Step-Up program with Maya. I guess she lost Maya's number. She asked for the number again this past Monday. I asked her what happened to the number we gave her before and she *actually* said, "My dog ate the paper." No joke.

Well, Tuesday night this classmate called Maya. We were having dinner at the time...a pizza picnic on the floor of our family room. It was so cute how this girl asked to "please speak with Maya." And it was even cuter to see and hear Maya talk to her friend. Maya asked her if she had finished her homework. Then Maya told her friend that I had found her lip gloss in her lunch bag...and then they just laughed.

So it begins.

It's actually nice that Maya has her own Google Voice number. I've configured it so it can ring at Linda's house when Maya is there and at my house when she's with me. So Maya can have just one phone number.
In fact, I've added a Widget to this blog...look to the right margin. You can call and leave a voice message for Maya...all from the web. Try it out.

Locks of Love

About a year ago, Maya heard about Locks of Love. A non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children in the US who suffer from long-term hair loss. We don't know how or where she heard of this organization but for awhile now, Maya has been saying she wanted to grow out her hair to donate it to Locks of Love.

Both Linda and I agreed it was time to cut her hair. It was becoming a distraction for her and a management problem for us. She would get so many tangles in her hair and I would spend so much time at night and in the mornings trying to get her hair untangled. Plus, she has always taken out whatever hair accessory we used and played with it during class and usually end up losing it.

So, this past week we took her to get her hair cut short.

It was a fun experience. Maya did great and didn't even get worried about cutting her hair short.
There just happened to be another couple there waiting for their teen-aged daughter to get her hair styled who overheard we were going to donate Maya's hair to Locks of Love. They said their daughter also has donated her hair to Locks of Love when she was younger. I didn't realized it was such a popular thing to do. But it sounds like a good cause and something that Maya has been looking forward to doing. This couple did give us great advice...keep the cut hair out of a bag for several days to make sure it is completely dry, so it won't get moldy.


I really like how her hair turned out...I think Linda does too and Maya says she loves it. It's funny but it seems like she even has a slightly different personality...a bit more playful than her already very playful person. Maybe it's just me.

Because we didn't get her bangs cut short (I was the one that didn't want short bangs), I've noticed her hair still does get a bit in her face if she doesn't tuck the hair behind her ears. But this doesn't seem to bother her. If it really does become a problem, we might have to trim back some of her hair...layer it around her face or cut shorter bangs. But for now I really like it. It just seems like she is growing up so fast.

Halloween 2009

In my last post, I mentioned taking Maya to the dentist. We had her appointment and all went well. Nothing really to report...but I thought I'd upload a picture of her in the dental exam chair. She was just cute. She really is a brave little girl. She was nervous about going to the dentist even though she's been there before, but she did a great job sitting there and following the directions of the dental hygienist. It was kinda funny. After her cleaning we were waiting for the dentist to come look at her...we were waiting for quite a bit and she was getting a bit antsy. She stood up and I guess her foot hit one of the buttons for the chair and it started to raise up and up...we couldn't stop it so the chair was raised up really high. It was just kinda funny.

Finally took Maya to get her flu "shot". Well, we didn't get her the seasonal flu shot as when I called around they were all out of that, but they had the H1N1 flu spray. I didn't realize this but kids under 10 have to get two doses of the H1N1 flu spray. So we'll be taking her back in a few weeks for a second dose. She was really afraid of getting this spray in her nose...I literally had to hold down both her arms and cradle her head while they sprayed the stuff up her nose.

Halloween 2009

Several weeks before Halloween came along Maya said she wanted to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. My mom was able to find a complete Dorothy costume at a garage sale...for like $7!! It was in great shape...but it didn't have the basket or Toto. My mom had to hem up the dress to make it fit, but it looked great on Maya. Instead of wearing Dorothy's braids, Maya decided to wear her hair down. Turns out toward the end of the movie, after Dorothy makes it to the Emerald City, she and her friends get cleaned up and in fact Dorothy's hair is down but with lots of curls and a blue bow on top. So that's the "Dorothy" Maya was.
We got good use of her costume this year. The weekend before Halloween, the downtown businesses in my parents' town had their Safe Trick or Treating event. So my parents and I took Maya to that. She got some early candy. Then on Thursday the local University had an on campus Halloween event for the kids. We got there late, but Maya was still able to get some candy and play some games there. It was pretty cool. I'll keep an eye out for that next year and get there earlier. My nephew Marcus came along with us for that...that was fun that he was with us...even though I really doubt he wanted to be there. I think his dad or mom made him come along with us.

On Friday, Maya's after school program was going to have their own Halloween party and the kids were encouraged to bring their costumes to change into. I showed up at the after care program early to help Maya get into her costume. Turns out only one other child brought her costume. I don't know what I was expecting from this party, but basically the kids were in one of the classrooms and some of the parents must have brought in candy. The woman in charge of Maya's after care class was just going to show them a movie but her DVD disc wasn't working so she ended up playing a mix CD with different kinds of music on it. So the kids just danced. It was entertaining to sit back and watch this bunch of Kindergarteners and First Graders dance. At first the boys were in one part of the classroom dancing together and the girls were in the other corner dancing. It really was fun to see Maya dancing with other girls. I never really get to see that very often. Eventually one boy came over and started to harass some of the girls. He was paying a lot of attention to one girl in particular. This boy kept touching the girl...like tickling her and trying to grab her. She kept trying to push him away and then ran away from him. I eventually went over to him, asked him his name and told him it wasn't necessary for him to touch the girls and to leave them alone. He did. Man, you can sure spot bullies and creeps early.

On Saturday...Halloween Day. Linda took Maya to a birthday party where she was able to also wear her costume. Then we took her to the downtown business Trick or Treat walk. Man, was that a busy place! Lots of kids all in costume. Plenty of adults in costume as well.

I really liked this video of Maya skipping along. The bad part is that about 90 seconds after this video was shot, Maya and I were skipping along together, holding hands, and she slipped on the road and ended up scraping her knee up. It ended up bothering her as we went from business to business. But I think she still had a fun time.

After a short rest at Linda's house, we took Maya to the 5:30pm Mass where several other kids and adults were also in costume because afterward, the religious education program had a Halloween party in the gym. It was a pretty good deal. They had finger food to eat and plenty of games and candy for the kids. They even had a costume contest. Our friends Joe and Cathy and their boys also showed up. Maya and Paul "The Bat" had fun playing the various games and I think little Philip even won a prize for his Superman costume.

After the party at the church Maya wanted to walk around Linda's neighborhood for just a bit so we did and Maya got a few more pieces of candy. It was a long day, but Maya had a great time and got lots of candy...that I've had to hide away. I still have lots of candy from last year's Halloween.

I'll close out this post now, but I'll have to create another post talking about my nephew's high school fall play he was in. Maya went to it and really liked it a lot. More about that another time.