Stacking blocks

Maya turns 2 on Thursday. My baby girl. We're planning a small party at our house. Maya loves to paint so I bought finger paints and finger paint paper, a large piece of plywood, more paint brushes and tempera paint, and small canvases so each kid could create their own work of art to take home. Guillermo wants me to fill up the baby pool so he can show the girls how to get in and out of the pool. (???) We borrowed a friends' bubble machine and we could inflate the bouncy castle, although Maya is a bit scared of it.  We'll have pizza and cupcakes and the party should be a hit. 

Maya's birthday also means she's earned another trip to the doctor. She hates going. I love it. I feel like the pediatrician is a parenting coach and while I'll roll my eyes at anyone who actually calls a real parenting coach, I'm always ready with a list of questions for my kids' doctor.  Turns out, he has a new series of questions for me about Maya. His office now requires parents coming in for scheduled checkups to answer a series of questions online about how their children are developing. Since you can't be with me in the doctor's office Thursday, here's a sneak peak at Maya's development:

Yes, Maya can point to the correct picture when I say dog or cat, can imitate a two-word sentence, can follow directions like "get your book," can identify pictures of many objects, can use two or three words that represent different ideas together, such as "Papa's chair." She can't however, use at least two words like "me," "I," "mine" and "you." She does have "mine" down pretty well, but that's only one. 

Yes, Maya can walk down the stairs holding my hand and can even walk down a few stairs by herself, but only sometimes does she kick a ball by swinging her leg forward. She can't jump with both feet leaving the floor. 

She can turn the pages of a book by herself, feed herself with a spoon, stack seven (and even more) blocks on top of each other and put toys where they belong when she is cleaning up from the day. She pretends a block is a telephone, she finds a stool to stand on if she can't reach something, she pretends to feed her doll, and she's pretty good at maneuvering a play shopping cart. She still says "Maya does it," rather than "I do it," and doesn't mimic me when I draw a line on a piece of paper. 

On the computer screen, she seemed to be doing pretty well. Impressive really, in my unbiased opinion. But, then tonight, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She said two, as in "Maya will be 2." Hmm, we have some work to do. I liked her answer better the other day. When I asked what she wanted for her birthday, she smiled and said "Cake." 

That's my girl.