Though I had initially hoped for a bit of a smaller age gap between Maya and Ben, in actuality, I couldn’t have asked for a better spacing between our two kids. Example one (of like fifteen): by the time Ben came along, Maya was just shy of three and daytime potty-trained — so we only had one in diapers (a huge cost-savings). And now I’m once again seeing how good this age gap is as one is learning to talk … and the other is learning to read. Both are tremendous and exciting milestones in their own right — and I’m loving bearing witness to both simultaneously. Further, I’m  loving watching Maya watch Ben learn. She is so encouraging towards him and it’s my hope she stays that way.

Since I have no time for real posts anymore, I thought I’d share some of what each kid is up to right now and why I’m feeling like one super #proudmama 🙂

Signs
Ben signs for milk, more and all done now.

Words
He has some frequent words/sounds: dada, mama, Aya (Maya), ba (ball), Doh-doh (Donald), ha dat (what’s that), vroom (car sound), woof/ruff (he barks whenever he sees a dog!), mah (mine? not sure – it’s new as of this weekend), mmmm (if he’s eating), ha (hi). (He came up to Luis last week and said “ha dada” — I was like, did he just say that?! Probably a fluke but whatever ;))

Comprehension
If asked, he follows some basic commands: he’ll play peek-a-boo, clap hands, put his hands on his head, blow kisses, hug, dance, wave hi/bye, do “so big,” shake his head yes or no (and he also does “si” — thanks to Luis!). If you ask him to come to you, or give you the ball/car/etc. he knows and will do it.

It’s been thrilling watching him develop and I do remember months 12-18 being pretty explosive for Maya in terms of comprehension and language so we will see if he follows her path or carves out his own. So proud of my Boo Bear!!

Little Bookworm
At the other end of the spectrum is Maya, who turns four in … 11 days! (GAH!) and loves to “read” to her dolls, her brother, us — and I couldn’t be happier, since I, too, was a bookworm as a kid. (I’m all about them books, ’bout them books, ’bout them books … )

Aside from books, the best purchase I have made to date for her was sight word flashcards from the Dollar Bin at Target last spring (I’m such a sucker for the Dollar Bin!!). Maya can write all her letters and for the past few weeks she has been asking us how to write certain words using her Doodle Pro or crayon/paper regularly. So since she was expressing an interest (and can point out certain words in her books — like “the” and “and”) I figured it was time to pull out the flashcards.

Well, today was the day … and she took to them like a moth to a flame!! She loves games, and I treated it like a game. I started out with just the couple words I knew she knew, and then started building sentences or phrases for her to read, and then would switch out a word or two — so instead of “the big red house” it would say “the little red house” or “the big yellow car”  — and she nailed them!! She stayed up an extra hour “practicing” and I think what made this so awesome is that she really drove this train — she wanted to do it, and I didn’t ask her to do it.

[Had I asked her, I am sure she would have opposed me just for the sake of opposing me … #threenager].

Of course, I praised the living crap out of her — we both did, when we saw what she was capable of! I just couldn’t believe how much she retained from the morning when we played to the evening when we played again … and it will take a long time to learn the whole deck … but she’s doing awesome so far.

Check out the video below — it’s dark (sorry!) and she sounds pissed off to the T and is mumbling a bit … but trust me, she was elated! “I can read, Mommy!” she said after I turned the video off.

Of course, I didn’t have the heart to tell her she can’t really read yet … but this is how it starts and it’s so exciting!! One word at a time. So, so proud of my girl!