First Field Trip

About 3 hours after I picked up Maya from school today, she comes running into my office and says, "Today was the BEST day ever at school!! We went on our very first field trip!"

I guess this school often goes on walking field trips along the levee...today was their first outing.

Yeah, I think we're going to like this school.

First Days

Wow...I really need to update Maya's blog. It's been a rather busy last two months. I have lots to share. But today was Maya's first day of school.

As you can see here, Maya is happy to see her name on the class list. I'll (hopefully) write in more detail her first day back to school, but for now, I'll just leave you with this picture of Maya at her new school.

Cousins

The other night I told Maya that Michael (her cousin) was going to be out of the state for a week...working at some sort of leadership camp. She didn't take this news very well. She really started to cry. She was so emotional. Between her gasps for air she said she didn't like it when her cousins were out of the state because she would miss them so much. And she was upset that she didn't get to say 'good-bye' to Michael. Since it was already late, I didn't want to call Michael (he was flying out the next day) but I did send him a text message to find out what time he was flying. The next morning I asked my dad if he would call Michael before his flight so Maya could say good-bye to him.

I was just very surprised by the amount of emotion Maya expressed about missing Michael.

Life is going to be difficult for Maya, I fear.

A lonely Wonder Woman

Today, Maya and I attended a birthday party for a boy from her old day care. I spoke with the mother of the boy on Friday. She said they might have water balloons depending on the weather and we should bring a towel or swim suit. She also said it was a Super Hero themed birthday party and Maya can come dressed as a super hero. Halloween two years ago Maya was Wonder Woman and her costume has been floating between my house and Linda's house. I asked Linda if she had it and she had most of the accessories....head band, cap, wrist bracelets, belt and boot coverings, but not the actual costume. Turns out I had it. So, this morning we tried on her costume and it still fit ok. We put on a swim suit underneath the costume and off we went to the party. I brought along a change of clothing just in case she did get wet.

When we got there, we quickly noticed none of the boys that were already there were wearing any sort of super hero costume...or costume of any sort....not even the birthday boy. Maya didn't say anything right away, but she told me she wanted to change out of her costume. I didn't blame her. I told her to hold on, that perhaps other kids would show up in costume. Nope. Throughout the afternoon a lot more kids showed up...not a single one of them were in any sort of costume. The only other person that had a costume on was the balloon lady that showed up to make balloon "animals" for the kids. She was in a Wonder Woman type outfit.

This isn't the first time this has happened to Maya before. Back when she was in pre-school, the pre-school would have various theme days....each month would have one day where the kids would wear a certain color....October was orange, February was red, etc. Most, if not all, Maya would wear the color of the day. On a few occasions they would have a certain dress up day theme. On one of these days, Maya was dressed up...I think it was like wacky hat or crazy dress up day...something like that. Well, I was dropping her off at the class room and we looked inside and NO ONE was dressed up in the theme...not even the teachers. She didn't want to go into the room. I didn't blame her. I really felt awful for her. I didn't say anything like that, but inside I really just felt awful. I don't remember what I said to her, but I eventually convinced her to go into the class. Why don't the parents read the posters and calendar and help their kids participate in classroom activities? I didn't get it.

Well, for whatever reason, Maya didn't want to change out of her costume when I asked her after more of the kids showed up. She took off all the accessories but kept the costume on. Oh...they never had any water balloons and Maya asked me why she had to wear her swim suit. I told her I guess I misunderstood the mom...but as we were leaving the party, the mom apologized for not having the water balloons. She did have a lot of activities for the kids so I didn't blame her. Besides, I guess all the kids would have gotten their clothes all wet anyway.

Windows+L key combo

Early last week I showed Maya how to use the Windows+L key combo to lock her computer when she walks away from it. A few days after that, I saw she was leaving her computer and she stopped and hit the Win+L keys to lock her computer. Sometimes you just feel very proud of your children.

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.

Make-Up

Maya went through a drawer in her bathroom and found some girls' makeup she got in a birthday gift bag some time ago. I had stashed it away in a drawer when she got it. Well, this morning she found it and is now starting to experiment with the makeup.

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.

Casper, the friendly ghost

For quite some time now, Maya has had this imaginary friend....named Casper. Well, maybe she's had two friends...Casper and Ghostly. The funny thing is that they're not...you know...people...they're ghosts. The friend started out as "Ghostly"...but now he's become "Casper". She'll remind me to put on Casper's seat belt in the car or to pour a drink of water for Casper.
I was thinking if I ever had an imaginary friend at any point in my childhood, but I really don't think I did. At least I have no memory of one. Perhaps my sisters would remember.

Sometimes Casper has his friends and/or family around too so we have to accommodate them as well.

I guess I just think it's odd Maya's friend is a ghost and not...well, another person.

I think next time Maya brings up Casper I'll ask more questions about him. Like how old is he and if he has a last name or not. Or if he wears clothes or just a white sheet.

"I can't calm down"

Just before bed last night Maya said she was hungry...no, "starving" was her word. This has become a regular thing for her. She says she is hungry at night. Now, usually at dinner she says she is done eating even if she has a few bites left on her plate. So i know she is really not starving later that night. So I try to not indulge her by giving her a late night snack. I tell her that she should have eaten all her food at dinner and she'll have to wait for breakfast to eat. She is not happy with this and usually starts to cry.

But last night was a whole new level of crying. She went from a playful mood into an all screaming and crying mood in a matter of seconds. And then she got angry. Since she hadn't brushed her teeth yet, I told her to go brush them. She was just very defiant so I told her I would brush her teeth for her. So while she continued to cry I brushed her teeth. I pretty much ignored her mood.

She continued to cry and cry. Finally I reminded her that she left some food on her plate and she there is no reason for her be upset like she is. I never raised my voice or even told her to stop crying..just that this wasn't a reason for her to be so upset.

She tried to stop crying and calm down but was just emotional that she couldn't stop. She eventually said, "Dad, how can I calm down...i can't stop."

At that point I picked her up and told her I was going to count to 100 and she could join in with me when she was ready. So I carried her around the house, gently patting her on her back and slowly counting to 100. (Recently, she's been interested in counting to 100, so we have doen this before.) Eventually, around 65, she started to join in and as we walked around our darken house we continued to count up to 100. Actually we ended counting to 160 before she calmly asked me to put her into bed...where she fell asleep after I massaged her back for a few minutes.

Let It Snow - 2009

Diana offered to take Maya and I up to play in the snow this past week. So that's what we did. Diana's friend and her son also came along. We were worried about the weather and road conditions, but they turned out to be ok.

I think Maya had a good time but her feet and hands got really cold. I need to get a better pair of snow shoes for her. Poor thing.

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.

Tis the Season

Maya is out on two weeks of vacation from school. She'll be spending lots of time with lots of relatives. Linda's family will be spending this first week together so Maya will get a lot of time with her cousins from that side of her family. This past weekend my sister, Diana, took Maya to see a performance of "The Nutcracker". Maya had never seen this before. A funny thing about Maya is that typically when Maya sees a live performance, she usually doesn't comment on it right away or she'll seem really aloof about it. But usually a few days later, after she's processed the experience, she'll start talking about it. I think she gets that from me...that's what I do.  Here is a picture of Maya and the star of the performance during intermission.  I guess Maya got her autograph.  (Picture taken by my sister.)

Maya will be with me next week...not sure what we'll do, but I'll have to plan on doing something fun. Perhaps a trip to The City...or to the snow...depending on the weather.

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.

155

It's been a long time since my last post. Sorry about that.

Three weeks ago Maya started a two week break from school...it was their Fall Break. The first week Maya and I spent the week at my parents' house. I happened to get sick that week for a few days. Then a few days later guess who got sick...yup...Maya. She said it was because she spent so much time around me. Her fever got up to about 102 degrees. Fortunately she was only sick for a few days. The second week of her break, she and Linda took a trip up to Oregon to visit with a college friend of Linda's. It sounded like Maya had a great time playing with Linda's friend's children and also doing some sight seeing around the Portland area.

Then it was back to school this week. This morning at school Maya said her tummy hurt and that she was dizzy. So she was sent to the office and they office tracked down Linda. So Linda spent the afternoon at home with Maya. However, it didn't seem like Maya was sick. I spent a few hours with Maya this evening and she was perfectly fine...back to her normal self.

Tomorrow she has a dental appointment that I'll take her to. She's been to the dentist a few times now. Last time they were finally able to take some x-rays. The time before, their digital x-ray plate and equipment was too big for her small mouth. But the last time, the hygienist was able to take the x-rays without all the extra equipment that is supposed to hold the plate in the mouth. So this time she should just get a cleaning.

What's up with the title of this post you ask? 155?

Over the past few weeks when Maya is in need of a number, she ends up using the number 155. For example, she has to wait 155 minutes for something. Her baby is 155 inches tall. There are 155 trees along the road, etc. She says she just can't get that number out of her head.

I just wish I could mount a microphone on her car seat. She says so many funny and odd things when we are driving around. This evening she told me she had a baby brother in her mother's tummy when she was her mom's tummy. But the baby brother climbed out and went into someone else's tummy. So she says she has a brother that she has never seen before. Where does she come up with those things?

Her report card comes out this week. It will be interesting to see what it says. I guess this school doesn't do parent-teacher meetings or perhaps that's after the report cards.

That is all for now.

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.