Maya-isms

Maya's language and comprehension has absolutely exploded these days.  She is constantly asking questions, she tells stories, she sings songs and just generally likes to talk.  I think some of my favorite moments are the conversations we have on our drive to daycare.  Here is a glimpse into our chats:

Maya: Excuse me.
Me: What happened?
Maya: I burped in my bottom.
This is her own made up term for tooting and I admit I laughed for long time the first time she said it.

Maya:  Mommy, you are my mommy and my friend.
Me: Yes, Maya.
Maya: Daddy is my daddy and my friend.
Me: Yes, Maya
Maya: Laurel is my sister and my friend.
Me: Yes, Maya
Maya: Benett is my cousin and my friend.
This continues on as she lists each and every person in our family. 

As she was getting tucked in bed, she popped up and asked if she could have a baby in her belly... um, no, and I am thankful she was satisfied with that answer. Not quite ready for that conversation yet!

She has started to make up words as she talks, so sometimes it is difficult to understand what she is saying.  You have to weed through the made up words and pick out all the real ones.  Her favorite is to add, "gump" to the ends of words... particularly Daddy, which has now become Daddy-Gump. She finds this quite humorous and laughs and says, "I am making up words!".

If she can't figure out what she is trying to say (sometimes her mind works faster than her mouth), she will pause and say, "I don't know the word".

Some favorite phrases include, "I very like it", "I got an idea" and "that's silly".

If she isn't talking she is singing. And I love to hear what words she hears in the song...
- sticky, sticky 'gumblegum'
- puff the magic dragon lived by the sea and a man called hollalee (this is the extent of the song for her and gets repeated over and over again)
- ring around the rosy, pocka pocka rosy

She even made up her own song... M-A-Y-A that spells Maya... On continual repeat.

She is very into matching and rhyming and says, "it's like the same" when she figures out something matches or rhymes. And only with Maya's pronunciation do octopus and applesauce rhyme.

She came out of the bathroom with her pants still down holding a baby wipe on her back and proudly declared that she "is a Superman". Then flew down the hallway.

She has moved up to the 3 year old preschool room, and despite my hesitation since she is young and small, she is absolutely thriving. Even in the short month and a half she has been in it I have seen huge steps forward in expressing herself, especially about what she needs and how she is feeling. The other morning she woke up early and walked around saying that she was "in a grumpy mood". I was glad for the warning :-)

I am loving this age and am amazed at the full conversations I can have with her. I can only imagine what is going on in her head.

Her new teachers take pictures throughout the day and occasionally email them to us... here are a couple of Maya at school.