"Once upon a time..."

Driving home on Sunday from City Mill (a local home and construction supply store), Maia had asked, "Where is Grandma?"

And so I told her that Grandma was in Washington with Grandpa. And that Washington another place that was on the mainland and that we fly to it (as Maia knows). And that all around us was Hawaii, that all of this place is called Hawaii, and that that's where we are.



And I told her that she used to live in Kazakhstan, that she lived there until she was almost two when Mommy and I went to get her.



"When I was a baby, I spit," she said.

"You spit?"

"I spit."

"Well, okay, sweetie, if you say so."



Today, after dinner, she and I were outside. I went inside for a minute and told her that I would be back.

I found her sitting on the back of our car, watching the light go down.



"I'm watching the sun," she said.

I tried to tell her something about the sun and the earth. Found a little flowerpot and told her to pretend that it was a ball so I could show her where we were and how the earth turns. When I was done, she told me to put the flower pot back.

Then she stood up on the back of the car and told a story.



I can only capture snatches of it--it was sort of a stream of consciousness story.

"Once upon a time," she started, "I was born. And I cried in my stroller. And once upon a time, I went to California. And Daddy was in his office. And I went to Daddy's office, and I saw Auntie Kalei and Uncle David. And someday it will be Daddy's birthday. And I picked a flower for Daddy."

Then she lay back down again on the trunk of the car.

"That was beautiful, Sweetie," I told her.



Tonight, playing cars with Kristina, she was assigning people to cars. She put her Mommy in one and her "other Mommy" in another.

"Where's your other Mommy?" Kristina asked when a space came in Maia's monologue.

"She is far, far away with Grandma and Grandpa, before I was born."

"And how many Daddies do you have, Maia?"

"One Daddy. He is in the office."



Don't know what all of this means. I think sometimes that listening to her talk is like listening to a dream. It doesn't make sense, and isn't supposed to. Can't, really. It's like having a window on the bits and pieces of fantasy that Maia's mind plays through as she processes all of this stuff into what will become the kind of thinking that we all recognize.

I wonder what she's learning--language, culture or life? Probably all three at the same time.



These photos--all except for the last one--are from when Maia was playing cars with Kristina tonight (and then using me as a road). Kristina said that when she picked up Maia at the preschool, the children were playing house, and Maia was one of the Mommies. The reference to multiple Mommies probably comes from that.

The last out of focus picture is from the day we adopted her--May 7, 2004.

John, Monday, August 7, 2006