What Maia's up to

Here's a conversation that Maia and I had just as we came home around lunchtime. We let Mona out the back door as we came in the house . . .
Maia: "Mona go outside!"
Cara: "Yeah, she asked to go out by standing at the door."
M: "Mona drop a deuce outside."
C: "She will if she has to. That's where Mona drops her deuce."
M: "Dada or Nana pick it up."
C: "Yes, that's right! They keep the backyard clean by picking up Mona's poop."
M: "That's nice!"

Other things Maia's up to these days:

1. Stacking blocks on top of each other, and calling the whole structure "Beaumont Tower." Thanks to Nana and Papa, she knows all about the landmarks of MSU's campus. When she's ready to play with her blocks, she announces her intention by saying "Maia build Beaumont Tower now. Okay!" How's that for an imaginative leap? This one shows the complexity of what's going on in her head: she's able to make the connection between a tower of brightly-hued blocks on our coffee table and a real-life tower that she's seen once in person, and has read about in one of her books. I love the imagination that's involved with that connection.
   
2. We're pointing out the differences between words and pictures on the pages of her books, which was a concept that she seemed to grasp very quickly. Now, if you ask her "Maia, where are the words 'Hop on Pop'?" (for example), she'll point at the text on the page.
   
3. The three of us went to Zingerman's this evening for coffee and half-off pastries (after 5:00 PM every weekday!). Maia marched right up through the middle of the busy restaurant, went straight to the cash register area of the counter, and started to wave and say "Hello! How are you?" When she says it, it sounds like "Hi-yo! How-a-you!?" She still does this little Queen Elizabeth-type wave, too, which is pretty ridiculously cute. (AKA "redonk," for my cuteoverload.com readers out there.