"And I'm still a little girl."

Yesterday, Maia wanted her hair up in a pony tail on the top of her head. This left her left ear--or its absence--exposed.

Kristina wondered about this. She asked her if people asked her about her ear and what she told them about it. Kristina has talked with Maia before about her ear and has suggested that she say she was born that way. Like Nemo.

"Do you tell them it's like Nemo?" Kristina asked.

"Yes," Maia said. "And I'm still a little girl," she added.

Kristina asked me if I had told her to say that, and what I thought she meant by it when I told her I hadn't.

"I don't know. But it's interesting."

Sometimes, Maia has such insights.

When Kristina handed Maia off to her teachers in the playground at school, one of Maia's friends--Kiana--came up and asked Kristina what had happened to Maia's ear. Kristina asked her what Maia had told her about it. Kiana said that she had said somebody had cut it off.

A thoughtful little girl but also one who loves being dramatic.

This photo is from Sunday, January 14th. We were at the petting zoo part of the zoo. Maia had recognized right away that this little goat had only one horn, and she had asked why.

Later that same day, I was in the backyard, checking on an avocado sapling. I heard crying coming from the bedroom. I looked inside, and there was Maia, standing in front of the mirrored closet door, studying herself crying. When she turned and moved towards the dresser and my window, still crying, I said, through the window, "What are you doing? Practicing?" She laughed at having been found out. Such a little drama queen!

John, Wednesday, January 24, 2007.