Short Stories of a Growing Maile

We are starting to realize that Maile has developed into such a young girl and isn't so much the baby that we've viewed her as. Here are some recent stories, which include her hobbies of talking on the phone and chasing boys around, that prove our theory correct.

-Whenever someone calls her on the phone (usually her Tita Pilar), she'll put the phone in her ear, hold it with her shoulder, say "hello", start talking about anything she feels like talking about while walking around the house. This goes on for a few minutes. So if you have a few minutes to spare and feel the urge to hear cow noises, what Nancy Kerrigan says, shout "Go Broncos", and everything else she feels like pulling out of her back pocket, feel free to call between 6:15-8:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

-We were at Target with a friend who has a 22-month old son. Maile wanted to give him a hug so she put her head on his shoulder and said "aww...". The boy got scared and walked away but Maile wanted to hug him again, so she chased him while saying "again, again" and proceeded to follow him.

-This morning, I was downstairs and heard Maile talking to herself in her crib. This meant she just woke up, didn't know if we were awake yet, so she was keeping herself entertained. By the time I got to her room, she was reciting the alphabet from A-G...clear as day. Then she even chanted "mmbop...doo...yeah", which is of course the Hanson song.

-Also this morning, she was watching her favorite Mary Poppins part (the penguins) and when it was over, she kept giving me the remote and saying again, so I would put it back on that part. After the third time, I think she got tired of handing me the remote because she said "again", grabbed the remote, and put it back on that part herself. Yes, she knew what button to push.

-However, her confidence was so strong that she tried to do it again but this time hit the forward button, which put her on the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious part. She also likes that part, proving so by grabbing her tambourine and playing along.

-Also this morning, I was laying in the floor in the closet and she closed the door on me, prompting me to say "oomph" because it hurt where the door hit me. She looked down on me and asked "you okay?", very much understandable.

-Her favorite phrase is to say "thank you mommy", even if it's daddy doing the favor.

-Shortly before writing this blog, I was reading my e-mail and got a bulletin from the zoo, thanks to Tita Pamela's zoo membership present. I said "zoo", Maile repeated "zoo", ran towards her books and grabbed her book "Peek A Zoo". Not a coincidence. She knows what she wants.

-She likes to grab her Baby Einstein DVDs (Mozart, Old MacDonald), hand it to us, say "watch", say "please", and sometimes hand us the remote while saying "thank you". Really, how can you say no to that?

-We definitely try to encourage Maile's manners by giving her everything she wants (within reason, of course) as long as she says "please", even if this means watching Baby Mozart three times in one sitting for 25 minutes each.

While Maile continues to grow in front of our very eyes, we still see her as our baby because she stills sees herself as a baby, as proven by the fact that she'll run up to Mindy and say "baby", as her way of asking Mindy to cradle her like she has the past 16+ months.

Of course Mindy holds her because she said please. And because she's still her baby.