"What did Maya pick?"

Although Laurel has always admired her big sister, we have officially reached the point where she won't make a decision without knowing what Maya is doing.

Me: Laurel, go pick your shoes for today.  Do you want your sandals?
L: Is Maya wearing her sandals today?

Me: Girls, what do you want for lunch?  PB sandwich or cheese and crackers?
L: What is Maya having?

And so on.  Luckily, Maya is not yet annoyed by this habit.  Although, based on stories about Amy and I as kids I am waiting for that moment to come.

I have also learned that I can use this to my advantage.  The only time Maya has freaked out about going to swimming lessons was the first time she had a male instructor (she was about 3).  Panic and tears the whole lesson.  We eventually talked our way through it and she was fine the next week, but it was a little traumatic for us both.  Laurel moved up a level this session and knowing there was a good chance she would have a male instructor I started to prepare her the week before.  Each time we talked about it Laurel would get upset and say she only wants girl swimming teachers.  I wasn't making any progress and started to stress.  The morning of the lesson we talked some more and Laurel still wasn't having it.  Maya came into the room and I asked her if she minded having boy teachers.  She easily said no and turned to Laurel to tell her that even the boy teachers made the swimming class a lot of fun.

In the car on the way to the lesson I asked one last time if it would be a no tears day, even if it was a boy.  Laurel put on her brave face and said she would have no tears.  I asked what changed and she said that Maya told her the boy teachers were a lot of fun!  And she did it.  Her instructor was in fact a boy, she had one moment of hesitation and jumped right in for her class.  Phew!