More on Mae

As soon as I post something, I think of more things I wanted to say:

- There's not much terrible about Mae's twos. For the most part she is easy-going, happy and willing to give up her way or things to keep other people happy. She has started asking me if I'm happy (usually when I'm angry or frustrated) and, after Adi has had a meltdown, she'll ask her "are you happy now, Adi?"

- She continues to be very outgoing. In fact, she has invited several people from daycare and playgroup to dinner at our house, or to sleep at our house (including offering up the master bedroom, saying that we could sleep downstairs so our guests would have a place to stay). Her adoration of other people's strollers has also led to the proposal that she should go home with another mom and I can take their kid home. I'm not taking it personally ;)

Mae at 2.7 years

Mae seems to enjoy relaying stories. Often, she will give a recap of what just happened, for instance:

You were saying 'come to the table' and I was saying 'no, no! I need to get my Annie.'
and you were saying 'lunch is ready' and I was getting my Annie and I got my Annie and we came to the table for lunch!, finishing with a proud smile-- not sure if she's proud of telling the story or of getting to the table as requested.

Dave noticed that she uses her hands to talk a lot, usually swirling her right hand in the air as if propelling the story along or holding up both hands to the side and shaking them for emphasis. Neither of us seem to talk with our hands so we're not sure where this comes from. It must be the Italian ancestory... except we don't have any.

She seems to be spontaneously polite, adding 'please' and 'thank you' without being asked and continuing to thank us, unprompted, for things like making breakfast, or to thank Adi for giving her a toy back. She is equally generous in her actions; although she purposely grabs toys from Adi just to make her mad, she also spontaneously shares and will get Adi's favorite toy if she's crying. One day at the playground, I commented to another mom that I wished I had brought a hair rubberband because the wind was blowing my hair in my face and Mae promptly pulled out her ponytail holder and gave it to me.

Also, she likes to show off her favorite toys by giving them to other kids. However, she is very possessive of her doll, perhaps showing a good mothering instinct (although given how often the baby gets dropped on her head, I'm glad there are a good many years before she can be a mother!)

It really does seem to delight her to get a rise out of Adi, though. One of the behavior issues we've been dealing with is that she'll roar at Adi when she's mad, or just wants to have fun. This doesn't seem like it is a big deal but, given the reaction it receives, we've made the rule that "you can't roar at people." (Never saw that one in the parenting books!). Mae does really like to roar, in general and has since it was the first animal sound she could make (see the bottom of this post, so we don't want to limit her self-expression but it seems to have crossed the line into rudeness. I've also seen her push Adi to the ground or hit her, and seem to enjoy the effect (Adi screaming). It seems she is also doing little, hidden things to make Adi mad so we've been talking about being nice to people. It is astonishing to have her tell me that she wanted to make Adi feel bad, but I guess that's not unusual for a two-year old.

She is definitely experimenting with whining, especially when she is tired, but she is capable of turning it into a sweet sing-song even mid-sentence when we say we don't understand whining. When we are getting ready for bed, she'll suddenly loll around on the floor, saying "I'm very tired;" too tired, in fact, to get her pajamas on by herself. When motivated, she can entirely dress herself (maybe needing help with a few buttons) and put her shoes on- now even on the right feet!

One of her most advanced skills is that of comparison, in order to explain what she's talking about to me. The first instance I noticed was when she was eating a lollipop with a ridge and asked me if that was a 'skin'. I didn't understand what she meant so she said, 'you know, a skin, like on an apple.' And now she is frequently saying that something is like something else-- often the similarities are lost on me. She's also noticing rhyming: a 'hotel' is like 'show and tell'. She'll ask if something rhymes; I'm not sure she understands what it means.

And smells- for the first time she's commenting on smells-- she really doesn't like bathroom deodorizers!

And another first-- when drawing on plain paper last month, she drew a "bear": a closed circle with dots for eyes & nose, and two stick legs! We were very impressed.
Now she's drawing the same thing for people-- with tightly circled balls for feet and sometimes hair.



A favorite way to go down our backyard slide.


After receiving a page of stickers at a birthday party, Mae decorated herself.




Rockstar


Annie the lion


Fashionista


Throwing a ball


Silly Mae

Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa B

My parents watched the girls last Saturday night so that Dave and I could help out with our annual karate tournament. My mom sent an email describing some of their time there that captured some cute moments. Here it is:

We did a couple of puzzles and Adi amazed me with her puzzle skills. Not only could she usually put in a piece if I gave it to her, but she was actually best at finding a piece and putting it in correctly the first time. It was like she just "saw" how it would fit. She seemed to use patterns and colors a lot.

We did a lot of stuff outside, and when I'd say we were going to do this or that, Mae's first question was usually, "Will it be noisy?" When I pushed the button and the garage door was going down, she stood with her hands over her ears and Adi rushed over and comforted her by hugging and saying "It's okay, Mae, it's okay."

They had PB & J sandwiches yesterday for lunch, and we all had popcorn as well. I was trying to get Mae to slow down, so I said she should eat one kernel, chew, swallow, and take a breath before she at the next one. It went fine until she said to me, "Grandma, you forgot to take a breath. You shouldn't break your rule." I was guilty as charged, and she was very polite and matter-of-fact. It was interesting she knew it was a "rule".

Here's how one conversation went, as Mae was fastening one of her necklaces around my neck:
Mae: Is that too tight, Grandma?
Me: No, it's good.
Adi: If it gets too tight, Grandma, you should tell me.
Mae: If it gets too tight, you should tell me and I'll loosen it.

And to this I'll add another story my dad told me a few weeks ago. He was in the bathroom with Mae when Adi walked past the door. Mae said "Adi's going to the living room" and Dad was impressed that she knew that. But then he tried to trick her by asking what was on the other side of the bathroom wall. Almost any of us would have probably said the living room, but Mae correctly responded that it was the closet. We were all amazed that she has such an accurate map of the floor plan!

Happy Easter

Quotables

Mae: [while eating bunny-shaped crackers] I'm a bunny eating sheener [machine]

Adi: [at the table, pretending to pick penguin off of her plastic cup and put him in her mouth] I eat my penguin. Him in my throat. Him say "I not want to be in my throat". I say "okay." [pretending to take him out of her mouth] Here you go, penguin.

Mae: Thank you for cleaning the toilet... so I can touch it.

Skiing at Snow Mountain Ranch

A big, big, HUGE stack

Blocks and photo courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa B.