Catching Up

I haven't really kept up Maya's blog lately. Sorry about that.

Let's see...what has Maya been up to?

The Train Museum

Back in February...on President's Day, Maya had off of school and I decided to take her to the Train Museum. My sister, Diana, joined us too. I had never been to the train museum before so I was sort of looking forward to it too. I must say, I was quite impressed with it.

Here are few pictures from our trip:

This is Maya telling us something about the bell in this display case.

Here is Maya sitting in the engineer's seat of a very large train. I think Maya had a good time at the museum. We got to walk through a few of the train cars, including one that made it feel as if you were on a moving training as it slightly moved back and forth and had outside lighting that simulated passing cars and rail road crossing. It was a pretty cool effect. Maya even wanted to go through that car twice.






Step-Up Family Night

Maya's after school program had a family night one afternoon. They had some arts and crafts and some snacks. I made a bracelet out of small beads while Maya made a necklace. She also painted a small wooden box. They also hid (plastic) Easter eggs around the room and the children were supposed to go look for them. However, that event didn't go off so well. The sound system they were using was that great and we couldn't really understand the directions and so the older kids just started looking and finding the eggs. Maya was very upset she didn't find any eggs and started to cry. I really felt bad for her but there wasn't anything I could really do for her. Another event they had was to celebrate Chinese New Year and they hid dragon parts (drawn on sheets of paper) around the room. The kids could trade the parts for a toy from the treasure box. Maya's after school teacher say Maya was upset and crying so she gave Maya a dragon part. Maya was able to get a toy from the treasure box, but she was still very sad about the Easter egg thing.

Les Miserables
Maya's cousins have been involved in the drama department at their high school and this year they were doing the musical, Les Miserables. I was sort of hesitant on taking her to this play as I thought it might be too complicated but since her cousin was acting in it and it was lots of songs, I thought she still might like it. And did she like it! I thought she might get bored since it was so long, but she sat on my lap and stayed focused through the entire play. I'm always amazed at her ability to remember songs. Since the musical, we have been listening to Les Miserables songs in the car and she remembers which scenes that songs come from. It helps that I had video taped a dress rehearsal of the musical and we've watched parts of the musical a few times. It's so exciting for me to know that Maya is interested in these plays. She says she wants to act in play but also says she would "be shy on stage." For some time now, Maya has wanted to write her own play and have her cousins and school friends star in her play. She has even talked about this play to her cousins and friends at school....already casting them into parts. This past week she wanted me to start on the program for her play. I'll keep the title of her play a secret for now.

Jack the Dog

Last Friday Maya brought home a stuffed dog from school. I guess her teacher has been passing this stuffed dog to each student to have for the weekend. The directions that came with the dog said the students were to take Jack along with them for the weekend and then write a short story about their time with Jack. As expected Maya got really attached to this dog and took good care of him. You see more pictures of Maya and Jack here.










Snow Trip

This past weekend I took Maya up to the snow. Two of my friends and their kids came along on the trip. Oh, and Jack came too. It was a perfect day to be up in the snow...they sun was out and it was all fresh snow. However, Maya didn't exactly have a good time of it. Her feet got wet and that just made her miserable. After only about 30 or 40 minutes she was ready to go home. We ended up going back to the cars and Maya sat in the front with her friend Paul, playing cards....they actually seemed to have a good time just hanging out in the front of the car. I think if we go to the snow again, I need to get much better shoes for the snow. Shoes that keep her feet warm and dry.

This is Maya and her friend climbing back up the hill with their sleds.









Bike Riding
In the past when Maya went biking riding, I would just walk beside her while she rode her bike, with training wheels, on the sidewalk. However, recently she's gotten faster and has better control of the bike so I decided I would have start riding my bike next to her. So earlier this week we went for our first bike ride together....and Jack came along for the ride.