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

Kids say the darnedest things!

When Maya was around 2.5 years old, she started to assert herself and make her opinions known......when she woke up......at 5 AM. My parents, who had me as their first kid - and I was the epitome of a great twelve-hour sleeper - couldn't believe we jumped into getting pregnant again considering the H - E double hockey sticks Maya had been putting us through with her sleep, or lack there of. 

One morning, around the 5:30-6:00 am range, Maya found her whistle and began running through the kitchen, blowing it as much as her little lungs could. Our windows were open with the great spring weather. 

Me: "Maya, you're going to wake up the neighbors blowing that whistle so early." 

Maya: "I'm not worried."

At the same time that our daughter was beginning to be her tough self, she also began to spontaneously display and profess her affections to her family. In May, 2013 out of nowhere and again in our kitchen while Mark was making her dinner and she played next to him on the floor, she said:

"I love you daddy."

It was the first time she said this to him unprompted. He looked at us both with almost tears in his eyes and pure joy. And as he was about to respond with words of fatherly love and devotion, she emphatically stated:

"I love you floor."

End scene. 

Wow was I busy. I forgot the update my blog for the last FIVE years! Silly me. All my wittiness, charm, and charisma have dwindled from the continuous sleeplessness, addition of another child, home ownership, and private practice building. Since I'm old and boring and my word retrieval skills are just not, what's the word? Well anyway, I am rededicating this blog to my children and the witty things they say. I have been tracking both kids' humorous observations, questions, and stories since they began talking. As a speech pathologist, we call this a language sample. As a mom, it's just payback for the torture they put me through. Enjoy this future 16 year old Maya and 14 year old Ari!

Back in 2013, when Maya was just 2, she had an odd focus on her knees and an interesting way of expressing that interest. On a trip to Florida that winter, she was put in shorts with no memory of wearing shorts in the past. She stared down at herself and said, "my knees are outside!" And they were. Smart kid. In synagogue later that month, she then said, "my knees are in shuel!" As was the rest of you, my child. What's up with your knees?

Then the spring before her brother arrived, two-year old Maya sat with her dad and me at the dinner table. She leaned over and let a HUGE adult volumed fart rip. We call a fart a "flootsie" (floots is the Hebrew word). Maya laughed and looked at us and confidently stated, "Maya big flootsie, Mommy big flootsie...." Drumroll...."Daddy big penis!" I think this anecdote might embarrass my husband more than her, but I think it indicates her understanding of anatomy and how the body works according to gender. Boys have penises and girls fart. Both true.

Pictured: Maya and her knees on that Florida trip, Spring 2013