Gracie....or Puppy

I finally got a picture of Gracie...Maya's new puppy. She's an active little pup. Maya really loves her and seems to do well with her. Maya named her Gracie, but still continues to call her "Puppy". Maya does a pretty good impersonation of Gracie yelping and crying. It's pretty cute to hear her.

New dynamic - new dog

Maya's Christmas gift of a new puppy has added a new dynamic into Maya's life.
As expected, Maya has grown quite attached to Gracie.  The night Linda brought Maya to me for my week to have her, Maya was already crying as I answered the door.  She gets really emotional when she misses her puppy.  In bed later that night and out of the blue, Maya just started crying a lot.  She could barely speak when I asked what was wrong.  Between her tears she said, "Life is going to be really hard now that I have dog."  She went on to say that she's worried her puppy might get hit by a car or get sick and die. It was amazing how she had all the feelings I had when Maya was first born (actually still have)...just worrying about all the bad things that could happen to a child.
I've had her all week and throughout the week she still thought and asked about her puppy.  She'll finally get to see her puppy later today when she goes back with her mom for the week.

Right now, two neighborhood kids are at our house playing with Maya.  They keep coming and going inside and out...playing with all of Maya's toys...and making a general mess of the house.  But it's nice Maya has someone to play with.

Maya's new puppy (as told to me by Maya, herself)

I have a new puppy which is called Gracie. I like playing with her and giving her food. I like to play hide and seek with Gracie. She's a bull-terrier and looks sort of like this: (this is not Gracie, but a picture that looks like her.) She's cute and funny. I miss her a lot when I'm not with her.  And sometimes she sleeps on her side with her ear flopped over.  When she starts to cry I pick her up and play games with her. That is all for now.  Good-bye.