it's my first day home with just maya, as miles started his four day a week program. i am missing my little guy. he does drive me nuts, yes he does. between stage directing ("mommy, you be the baby owl who is waiting for his mommy to come home." "hoo, hoo, where's my mommy owl i'm hungry?" "no, no that's not it, the owl is worried, NOT HUNGRY, mommy.") , requests to play guitar, jealousy over baby sister attention, questions about when we will get/buy/go/eat things in the future, demands to make up stories and of course the general pretending to be a wild animal whom i need to squelch i don't get much done. maya is also often left to explore on her own, which leads to a lot of "open your mouth, spit it out in mommy's hand", "get down" "turn it off", and "give it back to brother". doesn't sound that fun. but i am missing having both of my babies. i will see miles in an hour so i guess i'll be ok. he can drive me nuts then.

maya is asleep. we went to our first city colleg child observation class today. this is an awesome free program in various spots around the city. ours is up in a church on portola, and the teacher goes all out with trampolines, slides, ladders, dress up, water play, songs, story, balls, cars, zebra heads on sticks. i'm validated in feeling exhausted because even in this group of about 30 kids the teacher quickly notes that (among other qualities) that maya is "very busy." zing, there she goes up the steps to "poo poo potty"( this is a big tease about 90 % of the time, and i really don't love squatting on public restroom floors), zip, down the hall to wash dishes and get very wet, now off to make a glue painting, back to the kitchen to put some aprons around her neck, then she is jumping down some concrete steps, climbing onto a rocking horse, rocking so hard she bangs her mouth, now trying to climb a big metal ladder....

uh oh, she is up from her not long enough for either of us nap. big dog in arms, red cheeks and those ringlets with dreadlocks. now we can go pick up budduh from preschool. and find a way to fill the hours until bedtime with something that keeps us all happy.

thanks for listening, if you are listening.

and please look at the paintings.