Our Bodies, Our Religion, Ourselves

When Maya starting developing more of a sense of self, besides an interest in male oriented characters, she was curious about the human body, as most kids are. When I became pregnant with #3, she was much older than when #2 was growing, so she had many more questions and more of an awareness of how a woman's body changes. She looked at my growing belly one day and said, 

"Mommy, I have a small uterus!"

Later that week she heard the term "booby trap" in some show or book she read and was trying to talk out what exactly that could mean. Before I could give her an answer she said:

"Oh - a booby trap is when you fall on your boobies!"

Kindergarten for Maya was also a time of cultural and religious identity development. Being that she goes to a private Jewish day school, Maya started showing fierce commitment to our religion starting with week 1 there. At Friday night dinner after her exhausting first week of school, we did a quick run through of the Shabbat blessings. Maya became extremely emotional and cried:

"Noooo you can't sing it like that or God will be mad at us!" - definitely came to that conclusion on her own, that's not a thing.

Later on that year she reflected during breakfast:

"Turkey bacon is soooo good! The people that eat pork bacon are missing out!" 😂😂😂😂

Her understanding of the Jewish experience has developed since then, with learning about the slaves in Egypt, and then comes talk and questions about the Holocaust, and being that her great grandparents and even one of her grandfathers were and are survivors, she has learned a little bit about the persecution of our people. Maya came back from the gym's kids club one day and stated:

"None of the kids in the kids club are Jewish, so I asked them where their families came from to tell them what wars they were in with the Jews."

Oy! And now that we've caught up with Maya, we'll move our boychick, Ari. Stay tuned....

 Maya in a family play during Passover, playing the Egyptian Queen

Maya and Ari witnessing the growing uterus

Maternity Leave #3

Took a year hiatus because we procreated yet again! Since we are finally settling in to life as a family of 5...I want to catch up on the stories from not only toddler Maya but toddler Ari, now that they are both making much longer, bolder, and intelligible statements.

A THREE-YEAR OLD IN THREE ACTS:

ACT I:

Flashback to almost 4 years ago in 2014 (because um, 2018!!), Maya had to go to the ENT every so often to get her ear tubes checked. As a motivator/reward, and because it was so close to the appointment, we went to the Dunkin Donuts afterwards. There were lots of people there this one time, and 3 year old Maya looked around and asked, "Did these people all go to the doctor too?"

ACT II:

Bedtime routines are often when we see the comedy come out of our kids. Here is a sample from Maya at age 3:

*I read Maya a bedtime story from Toy Story and at the end I quoted it saying, "Maya, I love you to infinity and beyond!"...Maya said to me, "Mommy, I love you to Bed, Bath, and Beyond!"

*When Ari was a baby, Maya used to talk to his door when he was asleep already. Every night she'd audibly whisper, "Goodnight Ari, I love you, but I don't love you, but I do love you, but I don't. Goodnight!" Ain't that the truth about having a new sibling?

*Mark was using mouthwash and Maya was observing. The bottle was almost empty and Maya said, "You're almost done with your spit drink daddy!" 

*Maya was upset about something around bedtime, then her toothpaste accidentally squirted all over. Maya laughed and said, "It's like a sun shower because I'm happy and sad at the same time." Wow - at age 3 she had more insight into the complexity of feelings than many adults I know.

ACT III:

Insulting one's parents often begins young and innocently, and eventually just turns into tween criticism. I learned fast that with Maya, she was already a pre-teen in her toddler years...without further adieu:

1) "Mommy, your breath smells like turkey poop."

2) After watching a video of a song I wrote and sang called, "Protect Our Ears" Maya said, "Maybe we need to protect our ears from this song."

3) When looking at a callous on my toe. "Look how wrinkly your toe is, it's like Ari's penis."

4) "Focus on your story Mom!" - And I hope one day I can.

THEN...

AND NOW.

.

And scene.