Father and Daughter

I just uploaded some pictures from my camera and I really liked this photo. It was taken a few weeks back when Maya and I spent the day at Pixie Woods.

Smells like wine

On the way home this evening there was the smell of fermenting fruit in the air. I didn't say anything when I smelled it, but Maya said, "It smells like wine." I was really surprised she not only knew what wine smelled like but that she remembered what it smelled like. I guess Mom has been at some friends' house and they had wine and Maya smelled it.

I'm just kidding!

Maya has this cute thing she does when either her Mom or I call her at night to say good-night. When I have Maya, we call her mom and Maya talks in a low voice and says, "Hello, this is grandpa." And then continues on with an entire conversation pretending to be my dad. She has such a creative and quick mind. It's fun to hear what she has to say. When she is with her Mom and they call me at night, she pretends to her mom. In a very high pitched voice she says, "Hello, this is Linda." She can go on and on pretending to be Linda. In either case, she eventually yells, "I'm just kidding!" and laughs and laughs. It's very cute. The other day her voice was so high and she went on and on for a long time, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying, but she was just talking and talking. It's funny that she rarely pretends to be me but rather her grandpa. She does a great job pretending to be him. Maybe she'll grow up to be on Saturday Night Live and do character voices and such. That would be fun to see.

House full of girls

Yesterday afternoon my friend, Tim, and his family came into town to visit with his sister and parents. I guess they were celebrating Tim's father's birthday. They invited me and Maya to this family dinner as Tim's daughter (Emma) has been wanting to see Maya. It's been a long time since they've seen each other. In fact, Maya didn't even remember who Emma was. Tim's sister has two girls: one in 6th grade and one in 3rd grade. Emma just started the 1st grade. In addition to Emma, Tim has one step daughter and one step son. They were there too.

So, to recap- there were five girls ranging from 5 years old up to I guess 13 or 14 years old.

We arrived around 4:30-ish at Tim's sister's house. The girls were inside the house deciding what to do. The adults were sitting outside, near the pool, drinking and talking. Maya immediately fit right in. They were playing hide-n-seek and generally having a good time. We stayed through dinner....the kids ate in the family room while the adults ate at the table. I checked in on Maya several times, but really she was just having a good time hanging with the girls. When I have her, she so rarely gets to spend any time around girls, let alone kids her own age. I only have nephews and they are all teenagers. About the only time she gets to be around girls is when my nephews bring their girl-friends to family events.

I guess toward the end of the evening the girls were back in the bedrooms and started talking about boys. At one point, Tim's step-daughter came out and was really laughing. She started to tell us something Maya had said, and I beat her to the punch. I said, "Was she talking about Francisco?" She laughed and said "Yes."

It was getting late and time for us to go home. I went to find Maya...she was hiding behind a bed in one of the rooms. She just didn't want to leave. She was having too much fun with these girls. I had to pick her up and put her shoes on. She gave her new friends hugs and we headed home. In the car she said she wanted to be part of that family. She said she want to have a sleep over there.

When we got home she told me to lie next to her on my bed so we could talk. First she wanted to talk about "girls". She asked me what kind of girls I liked at work. What where their names and what were they were like. She even asked, "Are they like strange?"

Then we moved onto talking "about boys". She said there are 5 boys she likes in class and 5 boys she likes in the after-care program. She talked about Francisco again. She likes him...just as a friend now. She said some other girl keeps telling Maya that Maya and Francisco should get married. Maya said this girl is starting to annoy her. She tells the girl that she doesn't want to get involved in all that "marriage stuff" right now because she not a teenager but just a kid. Well, at least that message has gotten through to Maya!!

It was nice that Maya wanted me to sit next to her and wanted to talk to me about not only the boys she likes but also asked about what girls I like. I know there will be a time when Maya won't want to talk to me about anything, let alone about boys. So right now I'm really enjoying and appreciating the talks we have together.

Homework

Last week Maya got her first packet of homework that is to be worked on each night at home. It was my turn with Maya this week so we worked on her second packet of homework. The homework so far consists of worksheets taken from some sort of workbook covering Language Arts and Math. Then there is the "Name Sheet" where is suppose to practice writing her first name. The worksheets are really easy for Maya and she has no problem going through those. It's the name sheet that we spend most of our time on. It's funny, a few years ago, Maya's daycare provider helped Maya to write her first name and Maya was pretty good at it. All capital letters, but she did a great job at it. Then when she moved into a preschool, she also had to write her name, and I noticed she would write a capital "M" and capital "Y", but lower case "a". And it sort of got sloppy. So now, she struggles to get the lower case "y" correct. She seems to have trouble remembering how to do it. Her "M" is mostly ok, and her "a" is inconsistent...it looks different each time she writes it. So we spend a lot of time working on writing her name. I know she can do it better because I've seen her write it better before.

It's been nice sitting next to her while she does her homework. I guess this has been one of the things I've been looking forward to with having children...helping with their homework. Although I have to really work hard at keeping my cool when she doesn't do the work correctly or decides to do it "her way". Just another part of being a parent...keeping your cool.

Boy Crazy - revisited

Last week Maya informed me she and Francisco were broken up. Then she went into describing what was said by her, by Francisco and the third leg of the Love Triangle, Jaye. I really didn't follow any of it, but I felt like I was watching some sort of teenage romantic comedy...or rather drama. She's been at school less than a month and already she has broken up with her "boyfriend". This past weekend my family had a get together...a camp out in my sister's backyard. Over the weekend, I overheard Maya telling various family members about her breakup with Francisco and how she hoped she could be his friend again. I have no idea if this poor boy even knows what has been going on in Maya's head.

Man, I really don't know how I'm going to survive Maya's high school years.

End of the World

The other day Maya and I were driving and she asked something like, "Where is the end of the world?" I had to ask her to repeat her question because I really didn't understand it. She said again, "Where is the end of the world?" I told her the world is a ball, like an orange and reminded her that she has seen a globe before. But she didn't like my answer and rephrased her question, "No, when will the world end...when all this stuff goes away?" I saw in the rear view mirror she had her hands stretched out and was referring to all the stuff around us.

Man. I didn't know how to answer her question. Why would a five year-old be asking such questions? Why wouldn't a five year-old ask a question like that? I guess it's only natural to ask those sort of questions. I think I told her we didn't know when the world would end, but that only God knows that answer. I guess she was satisfied with that answer because she didn't ask any more questions.

Walking on Water

I haven't fully blogged about this yet, but several weeks ago my sister took Maya and I on Maya's first backpacking trip. I've been hoping to make a more detailed blog entry about this trip, but just yesterday I received this picture from a guy and his son whom we met on the backpacking trip. Maya and this father's son instantly bonded and had a great time together. Maya still talks about her friend. Anyway, I just wanted to post this picture that was sent to me. It's just a great photo. The view of the lake is great, I like Maya and the little boy sitting next to each other and my sister in the background walking on water.

Lollipop

The other day in the car Maya started singing that old song, "Lollipop". She kept singing it over and over. I had never heard her sing it before. Then she said, "I can't get that song out of my head. I just want it out of my head."

I thought it was just funny she said this. I didn't know where she had heard it. I guess she said she heard it on a TV commercial.

I think this was the commercial.

Homework

We got a letter from Maya's teacher that in a few weeks she'll be sending homework home. I guess Maya wanted to get the jump on doing home because each day this week she has asked me to help her do her "homework". At the start of summer I bought a workbook for Maya to do some educational work in. So every night I've had her this week, we've spent some time doing a few pages of work. She actually gets into it...for a period of time...but if it starts to take too long I can tell she gets bored with it and starts to do sloppy work. I think that will be our challenge with Maya...keeping her interested in her work long enough to get it done correctly and neatly. I really think that is the challenge for any school-aged kid.

Maya really needs work with identifying and writing her numbers. She's pretty good with the alphabet, but not good with her numbers. I think I'll have to make up some flashcards or something so we can practice learning her numbers.

If anyone has any ideas on the best way to get her interested in learning her numbers, I'd be happy to hear it.

Camping Trip

This past weekend my high school buddies took our kids camping. This isn't the first time we've done this. We did it last summer except one of our friends wasn't able to make it. But this weekend, all four of us were there. The kids ranged from 9 to 2.5 years old.

Maya had a good time this weekend. We got to play in a small creek. In fact we went for a long walk in the creek, climbing over rocks and looking at nature. We even found a small waterfall.

And we found a banana slug that Maya told me she did NOT want to kiss.

I think the best part for Maya was that she got to go skinny dipping in the river for a few seconds. She was really excited about that.

It really is a lot of fun to do these sort of trips with Maya. She is a good girl and I don't have many problems with her. She's very curious about things and for the most part follows the rules. It's fun to see her experience new things and hear her laugh when she's having a good time with her friends.

Boy Crazy

I'm taking Maya on this caming trip this weekend which means I'll be getting her right after school ends and she won't be going to the "Step-Up" program.

Last night when I was saying goodnight to her on the phone, she told her mom that she needed to talk to just me and so Linda excused herself from the room.

Maya said it would "break her heart" to not see Francisco today and we need to cancel this camping trip. It's funny that Maya can't quite pronnounce this boy's name, but instead attempts to call him "San Francisco"...but that doesn't even come out right.

I told Maya that she would see him next week, along with all the other Step-Up friends she has met. I really don't want her to get hung up on this boy...she is way too young and I really don't want her to make this boy feel uncomfortable. I'll have to have a talk with the Step-Up teachers next week to make sure she isn't spending too much time with him.

Yesterday she told me she had a "situation" between Francisco and the "curly haired girl" that hangs out with them. I wasn't sure exactly what the "situation" was, but it involved deciding who was friends with whom.

Aye-aye...this is starting way toooooooooooo early for me.

Meeting Friends

This is Maya's second week of Kindergarten. It's been interesting hearing about her day. She really doesn't say much about the time in her Kindergarten class. She goes to an after-school program when Kindergarten is over. It's called "Step-Up". Yesterday when I picked her up she was sitting at a table reading a book with a boy...an oder boy. Maya told me his name was Francisco. Although that's not how she pronounced it. She had trouble pronoucing it. She said she liked Francisco and he was in the 2nd grade.

This morning I got an email from Linda who said Maya was very talkative about this boy, Franciso, last night and this morning. I guess she told Franciso she would write him a letter and Maya asked Linda if she could help write a letter to him, telling him that she loves him. I guess Maya had a dream about this boy last night.

Geesh.

In other news. Maya started the last of her swim lessons last week. So right after school is out, I pick up Maya and head to the pool for her lessons. Maya's old babysitter, Tommie, has all her daycare kids at the pool for lessons when we get there. She makes an afternoon out of it and since we get to the pool about 30 to 40 minutes before Maya's lesson, we hang out with them. Maya has told Tommie several times that she misses Tommie and gives her hugs.

Today will be Maya's last day of lessons because on Friday, we're going camping for the weekend. I'm calling it "Last Borns with First Borns Camping". My high school buddies, all the last born in their families are taking their first born child camping this weekend. So, it'll be me and Maya, Joe and Paul, Kelly and Julia, and Mike and Everett.

It should be a fun weekend, I hope.

In her own words...

My daddy is so helpful to me.

Second Day

It's hard to really tell how Maya is doing in her class. She doesn't really say much about the class time. When instruction ends at 2:20pm, she goes into an after-care program called "Step-Up". She's mixed with K-3 (I think) kids. I'm not really sure what they do, but today she said they listened to a lady sing.

Today when I took her to school I stayed with her in the cafeteria until her teacher came to pick up the kids. And then I walked with them over to her classroom. Just before the teacher showed up in the cafeteria Maya said she was thirsty but they didn't have a water fountain in the cafeteria (that would make too much sense), it was only outside. Well, we didn't have time to go outside to get a drink before her teacher walked them to their classroom. I walked behind them and Maya started to cry. I caught up with her (she was at the end of her line) to see what was the matter. Well, we had passed a (tall) water fountain and she really wanted a drink. As she was crying she asked for my help to get a drink. So we walked back to the water fountain and I lifted her up to get a quick drink and she got back in line just in time to enter her room. I said good-bye again and she turned back and raised her left hand and waved good-bye. She looked so cute with her skirt uniform and superman backpack on her back.

She started her last session of swim lessons with the Parks & Rec this past Tuesday. So I picked her up around 4:30 and we headed to the swimming pool park. Her lesson start at 5:20, so we had time to change and hang out in the shade and eat a snack or two. She has not been very good at eating all of her lunch these past two days. We'll have to figure out why she isn't eating all her lunch.

Maya's first day of Kindergarten

Maya spent the night the night with her mom so I went over there this morning. She was already dressed in her dark blue skirt and shirt. The school has a uniform policy. She was eating breakfast. She wasn't exactly her cheery self and Linda told me Maya had fought with her on "everything" this morning. As Maya was drinking her hot tea, I interviewed her. I asked what she wanted to be when she grows up. At first she said she wanted to tell stories and jokes to people. Then she said she wanted to be a librarian where she could read stories to people.

We went over the contents of her lunch box and made sure she know where everything was.

She wanted to drive in my car to school so she got in and off we went.

As we drove up the school, we saw lots of people in the court yard. Maya was very quiet. I could tell she was scared but she never started to cry. Linda joined us in the cafeteria where the kindergardners are to meet each day. Most of the kids there were having breakfast...which today was either cold cereal or a pizza square. Linda commented on that strange breakfast meal. I agree....piazza for breakfast seemed odd to me.

The other thing I noticed was the apparent lack of adhering to the uniform dress code. Their dress code is rather liberal, but I was surprised to see anyone wearing jeans. Perhaps the first day is a "free dress day". We'll see.

Maya's teacher came around the table and gave each of her students their name tags. There is another "Mya" in her class...but her name is spelled "Mya". Maya was pretty much quiet throughout the time in the cafeteria. I tried to get her to talk to this other boy in her class that didn't appear to have any parents with him. He looked rather lonely, but not really scared. We finally marched together over to her classroom where each student was to find their name on their desk and place their backpacks on the back of the chair and then have a seat on the floor. About the only time I saw any sort of smile from Maya was when she found her name on her desk. She seemed proud. It took a while to get all the kids sitting on the floor. Meanwhile the parents were standing around the edge of the room watching.

I had commented to Linda that Maya's brown hair with blond-ish streaks was the lightest hair color in the class. Most of the students looked to be of either Hispanic or Asian persuasion.

After all the kids were seated, the teacher started to address them...and then stopped and finally really acknowledged the parents. She said the parents were allowed to stay a little bit (emphasis on "little bit") longer. At which time I raised my hand and asked where the kids were to be picked up at the end of the day. She told told us outside on her ramp.

It was then that Linda and waved good-bye to Maya and left the room. Maya waved back to us. I didn't see her cheerful smile, I could tell she was worried/scared, but I know she'll be ok once the day got started.

So that was the beginning of her first day of Kindergarten.

I'll put up some of the pictures later....to be honest I didn't get very many good shots of her smiling as she appeared worried or shy in the pictures.

An Introduction

This is Maya's dad. I'll be Maya's "ghost writer" until she's able to write her own blog. I've had my own blogs for many years and recently most of my blog entries have been about my daughter, Maya, and so I've decided that I should just create a blog for her and document snippets of her life to share with family and friends. And perhaps one day, when she's older, she'll want to look back to read about her younger years.

I guess what really prompted me to start blog now is that tomorrow (well, technically today since it's past midnight) she'll start Kindergarten. She finished preschool a few weeks back and now she's heading on to Kindergarten at a new school.

She's had a pretty busy past few weeks, this Summer of 2009. I'll write a few entries to document her summer. But for now, I just wanted to start this journal with this simple introduction.