Exotic yet ordinary

So, Maya is curled up beside me on the couch, sipping apple juice from a regular, non-sippy cup cup (yay!) while watching the Grinch as he grinches the Cat in the Hat. A few minutes into the show, I notice that Maya has gone from sipping the apple juice to swishing it, but I choose to ignore this, mainly because she spent part of her afternoon scrubbing the living room floor for fun. No really. Of all the options I gave her (chalk? play games at pbskids.org? draw? video? nap? clean the floor? ) she gets excited about cleaning the floor. Consequently, this makes me ridiculously excited for the future and makes me think all that time she wasted watching Cinderella is starting to pay off. I mean, who cleans for fun? Apparently, my kid. Anyway, she's sitting and swishing and I'm ignoring until I feel a splat of apple juice on my arm, which has been around her all this time, and Maya gets very still. I'm no longer ignoring, obviously, but I still don't say anything and in the silence I can tell she's debating what to do. Finally, she speaks. "Mom, I spit apple juice on your arm." "Yeah." "Don't worry. I'll lick it off." And she leans over and licks my arm and takes another sip. Told you she likes to clean.

Today was her first day.

Her dad and I walked her to school. I was going to grab my camera on the way out the door this morning, but I talked myself out of it. I didn't want to embarrass her on her first day by being all crazy photography mom, the one that followed her around with a camera to document every stride of her first walk to her very first day of elementary school because, you know, she might want a flip book some day. See here? she'll say. This is me walking to school. No really. Watch (thwip thwip thwip thwip). Besides she might want me to hold her hand. And carry her bag. So no camera. As we neared the crosswalk and the school I could see other parents walking their kids inside for their first day. Every single one of them had a camera. Of course. At this point the crossing guard grinned and said, Hey! first day? Got yer camera? No? and then she proceeded to whip out her pretend camera to take a picture of Maya, so even she had a camera. There was no time to go back, so I resolved to take a picture or twelve when she got home that afternoon and marched through the IN door with Maya. We followed her to her classroom, waited for her to hang up her bag, gave her eleventy or so hugs and about as many kisses, waved and left. After that, she was out of my hands. There was nothing for me to do but cross my fingers and wait. Oh, and go to work. At 3:17, I called to see how it went (okay, but nobody wanted to be her best friend) and to find out what she learned, a question I didn't actually expect her to answer but to which Maya replied: we learned to keep our hands and bodies to ourselves. Good deal, I said. And then she ran off to play.

Him: Is there something -
Her: I know. It has a wang. I licked it.
Him: ...

(later)
Her: Man. I can still feel that ginger on my tongue.


Last weekend, I convinced Justin that going out for Japanese food at Fuji before our nine o'clock movie was a good idea. After dinner, he convinced himself that he is finally finished with Japanese cuisine. Not that he hasn't given it a good go, or that he didn't enjoy his salmon, it's just not for him... and by it, I assume he means the sushi, which is a shame because I've really started to enjoy sushi rolls. Or am at least getting used to them, the whole two different kinds I've had.

Last weekend we went to the zoo. Without any cash. But that's another story that ended with the three of us NOT being able to get into the interactive new bird exhibit, Feather Fest, because it was an additional $2. I was silly and thought the exhibit was free with admission or something, so when the woman at the entrance took our money and only asked if we'd like to plunk down a little extra to ride the train, and what parent with a train-obsessed (almost) 4-year-old in the family is going to say Nah, skip it?, I didn't think about the cost for Feather Fest. Because I didn't think there was one.

So, we rode the train and watched the sea lions do their thing and we walked over to the bears where Maya told us all about spectacled bears and how they eat fruta (thanks, Diego!). At the penguin exhibit, one of the penguins swam over to say hello. The penguin followed Maya as she walked back and forth in front of the tank.


He seemed to be taken with her, or maybe he just thought she had some fish tucked away in her pockets.

Her most favorite part of the zoo visit, she said, was the jaguar. Usually the jaguar is hiding out, lounging in a shady corner or on a large tree limb, but that day he was roaming the perimeter of his living space, and each circuit brought the jaguar

right by the front of the exhibit, sometimes within a few inches of the glass. Which is pretty cool, but a little disconcerting. Unless you're a little kid, then it's just cool.


So we get back home and we're tired but happy and while we're winding down, talking about our day and what we liked best, Maya says: Baby seals can’t be too careful, you know. Well, sometimes they can. Sometimes they can but don’t. Sometimes they can and dry up. And that was my favorite part of the day.