Finishing up our unit on the oceans, we made and tasted salt water, played with our ocean animals in the bath, and experimented on the best ways to transport water. I gave the kids about 10 different "tools" they could use to carry water from one bucket to the next: baggies, paper towels, spoons, a sponge, slotted spoons, a straw, a dump truck, etc. They had to determine which was the "best" and which didn't work so well. I loved their observations:
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Me: Vivi, try this one (giving her a slotted spoon).
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Vivi: (dipping it into the water and watching the water slide through the holes) Oh man! The water fell though mommy. It can't work!
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Later, me: Tonito try this one (again, the slotted spoon).
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Tonito: (dipping it several times and watching the water fall through). Mommy. There's holes. It doesn't work.
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They voted that the sponge and baggies were the most fun and carried a lot of water as well. Maya had a BLAST. Seriously, she was working so hard, running from bucket to bucket as if she were on an important mission. She was so busy scurrying around and spilling water everywhere, and had a furrowed brow as she marched on the sidewalk holding the teaspoon perpendicular to the ground, dripping down her arm. Arriving at the bucket she would bang the teaspoon on the ground, trying to pound out any water left in it, smiling as she accomplished her duty. Had I only known that 2 buckets of chilly water and some spoons would have kept the kids busy for an hour in 100 degree heat (but we were in the shade!:)...
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Maya's most recent phrases:
Maya is a little parrot, talking more and more every day. Someone asked the kids how old they were. Vivi and Tonito each answered "I'm 4." Then Maya did too "I'm 4." "No silly, you're one!" "NO! I 4." "She's 1." "2!" she argued. Already lying about her age. But the truth is, she thinks she is a big kid; in her mind she is another 4 year old and wants to do *everything* the big kids do. She is obsessed with Lion King, and every night wants "bebe Nana" (baby Nala). Or "Mommy Nana" (mommy Nala). She doesn't like Simba and says "Scary!" while shrugging her shoulders. She asks us to read the Lion King book (Nana book) 100 times a day, though she really just wants us to point to the pictures and name the characters.
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THE GOOD:
Maya now asks for help in the sweetest voice: "You 'elp me, pease?" (she doesn't say her "h"'s). So adorable because she pauses and takes a breath after "me." She also says "I love you Vivi." "I love you Toto." etc. She even does it for Boudicca and Mingo, and then she laughs as if it is funny that she loves them. In the car she lists everyone in her little world that she knows, as if she is taking inventory. From the backseat I'll hear her shout "Gamma! Gampa! Co! Mimi!" and then she laughs "Leo! Sophie!" Everytime dogs are involved she thinks it is hilarious. She lists Timo, ah-een (Colleen), Didi, 'ita, 'ito, etc, etc. Copying Vivi and Tonito, she wants to buckle the top part of her carseat by herself and INSISTS "I do-ed it I-self!" She is very good at it. She loves princesses and can identify all Disney princesses "pin-cess." She calls her self "Maya pin-cess." When she wants her shoes off she says "shoes out." Every time she sits in her booster chair she insists on her "seatbelt" and won't eat until she buckles it. Then at the end of the meal she says "Seatbelt out (=off). all done."
THE BAD:
If I am rushing around while she is still at the table with food, she throws it all to Boudicca. The only problem is that Boo cannot catch handfuls of soup, rice, mac and cheese, etc. Handfuls. Her fur gets covered, the rug gets covered. Did I mention we are in a rented apartment?
THE UGLY:
So when Vivi and Tonito get mad at each other, they tell one another: "I'm not your friend now," until they make up and then they are "best friends" again. The other day I almost choked on my breakfast when I heard MAYA saying "No friend Vivi!" She was telling Vivi she wasn't going to be her friend! Monkey see, monkey do- and this definitely is a house of monkeys!
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