Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a good day. Kristina had been having trouble again. She bears the heaviest load of the responsibility of parenting and has given up much more than I have.

At breakfast, I gave Kristina a box of chocolates and a gecko pin. When Maia was little, she had been trying to communicate something to us about the window in the kitchen, but neither Kristina nor I had been able to figure out what she was saying. Then she put one hand in the air, posed the other one lower, and cocked a leg--we knew at once she was imitating a gecko, and we both burst out laughing.

We took Maia to the park after breakfast. Kristina went shopping at Goodwill while Maia and I played. Maia found a little boy she has played with before. This time, though, it didn't work out. It started well enough, but after they had been playing for a while, he cried when he came down the slide and she was in his way at the bottom. They've played this game before, a kind of pile up on each other game, so I really didn't understand it. Here's a pic from an earlier day at the park when they were having playing this game:



Maia didn't mean anything by it. She just likes to have fun. The pic at the top is of them playing before the little boy had his meltdown. Here is another:



I hope they get to be friends again.

After the park, we went to Micky D's. We stopped at the men's bathroom on the way, where Maia once again observed that it's very dirty as compared to the women's bathroom. :)

At some point during the day, I told Maia that our job was to drive Mommy nuts. I was only half teasing about that. Maia adds an unpredictability factor to our lives that makes us think about what's important.

Here is a pic of Kristina and Maia at Micky D's. I don't think I've ever seen Kristina so relaxed with Maia.



And of me and Maia.



Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. We really don't know what you go through, but we do appreciate it.

John, May 15, 2006