What did we do this morning?

Between 7:35 (when Maia woke up) and her first nap at 9:20, what did we do?

• One quick "good morning!" nursing session (first breakfast--perfect for hobbits like Maia!). More than anything, I think the purpose of this one is for Maia to re-connect with Mom after waking up from nighttime sleep.
  
• Applesauce (second breakfast)
  
• One diaper change
• Played with her cars/garage
• Played with her shape sorter cube
  
• Played with the Eric Carle puzzle
• Crawled through the kitchen and into the living room
  
• Read Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (whole book)
  
• Read On The Night You Were Born (whole book)
• Read The Littlest Dinosaurs (first 4-5 pages . . . then the fidgets signaled the end of reading time!)
• Pulled a bunch of Mom's books off the bookshelf
• Looked through Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate
• Practiced some walking (holding Mom's hands while taking some very nice steps forward across the living room)
  
• nhhhhhmnfjffffjjhjjjjjkvk.llll;;;. (helped Mom with a blog entry)
• Second nursing session to help Maia chill-out and get ready for naptime.
• Off to nap #1 for the day (at 9:20 AM) without a peep. We timed this one perfectly! :)
  

When I return to teaching kids again, mornings like this with Maia will have accumulated and helped me learn something hugely important: when kids begin to get fidgety and restless and distracted, it's not because there's something wrong with them. It's because I've insisted that they stick with an activity beyond their capabilities. Maia is extremely good at communicating when she's done with something, when she can't really learn anything else from it, and when it's time to move on. As long as I listen to her and pay attention to her signals, she can spend hours in "sponge" mode, when she's soaking up information about the world at a rapid, efficient pace. It's really cool to watch. But it requires me to be attentive and responsive, and to notice when I'm asking more of her than she's able to give. I need to take this lesson and carry it with me back into the classroom someday.