tooting maya's horn

For a long time I tried to teach Maya to blow bubbles.   I suppose I started way to early because she really wasn't into it at all.   Soon after I let it go and didn't push it any further, still wondering when I was supposed to try again.

Here and there when Maya gets sick, I try to encourage her to blow her nose. Most of the time she just looks at me with a straight face.   I imagine she may be saying, "Hhhmmm, what the heck is mama doing?"

She never has tried to imitate my actions, not once. 

Mid November I caught a chest cold and we ended up spending a lot of time at home together. I always feel bad that I'm not getting Maya out with the other kids.  Especially now I think she needs the exercise since she is walking.  She did pretty well the whole week though.  I feel very lucky because she can pretty much entertain herself with the mirror,  her toys and music.

One day I found her playing in the front room.  The sun was shining down on her through the big window.   The room felt like it was glowing and I loved watching her silently entertain herself.  First she was playing with her puppets and then she started to empty out the toy bucket.  She was going through everything in that box,  every single toy came out one at a time.  She inspected each item carefully, tested it out and then moved on to the next toy.  It was really interesting seeing her train of thought. 

exploring her toy box

When she came to the horn (the horn we have used during speech therapy), she looked at it and then put it up right against her lips.  She hadn't played with it for a very long time, but she knew what to do.  She didn't blow with her mouth but with her nose.

trying to give the horn a blow

It was the best little blowing sound I have ever  heard!  This is the moment I thought to myself, this is the moment when she has put it all together.  This was a step towards another milestone.  Sometimes they don't seem like much but they are there. When she blows that horn for the first time or blows a bubble, this was the moment that led up to the big event.

And when the horn didn't make a sound,  Maya decided to make her own tooting noise.  "aaaaaahhh" she said.  Then she was done and crawled into the box to get the next toy out.

making her own noise