Poopin' in the Potty!!

Tonight, as we were getting ready for bed in Liam's room, I just finished changing his diaper and started to put his jammies on when Maya said, "I have to go potty!" and made a beeline for the bathroom. I told her to go ahead, and I would be in to help her as soon as I was done with Buddy. I quickly finished getting him dressed and headed into the bathroom. What I found, amazed me. Maya was sitting on the regular potty (not the little one right next to it), she had the footstool positioned right in front of her, with her feet resting on it, and she was POOPING!! I was so excited, I had to restrain myself from lifting her off the potty and hoisting her up onto my shoulder in celebration! That was a HUGE step for her... and to do it completely unprompted!! I am SO PROUD of her!!! We have been battling this pooping issue for a month now. Just this week, we have been leaving her in big-girl-undies, and if she poops in the undies, we just throw them away. We have made several attempts to coax her onto the potty for pooping, without any recent success. The first couple of days of potty training, she pooped on the potty, and then she just stopped. About a week ago, she pooped on the potty when our babysitter swept her into the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet before she started to go in her pull-up. The next morning, I tried to congratulate her, and she denied, denied, denied. She was completely adamant that she had pooped in her pull-up and was near tears when I suggested otherwise. In the last couple of days, I've conscientiously made a BIG effort not to react when she poops. Maybe the light bulb has switched on for her tonight. Then again, maybe the moon, earth, stars, and sun were all in perfect alignment around 7:15 pm. I guess we'll see tomorrow! If she has truly decided to start pooping in the potty, I'd say she's 100% potty trained (except for naps and bed time, but I'm just counting waking hours here)! I can't wait to find out!!

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel"

Will and I took Maya to the "noovie teater" to see "Alvin and the Chipettes" tonight, on our very first Maya/Mommy/Daddy movie outing. When we got in the truck, I told Maya, "Daddy's taking his two best girls out on a date to the movies," and she said, "Me and you?" Well, I hope so!! It was so cute. We went to the Celebration Cinema Carousel in Muskegon to the 4:45pm showing. Early evening seems to be the best time to work around naps, meals, and bedtime. Maya's always in good spirits at that time, especially if she knows she's going to the movies!The movie was REALLY cute. There were several laugh-out-loud funny scenes that made it just as entertaining for us as it was for Maya. Of course, half the fun of going to the movies with Maya is just watching how she reacts to the movie. She let out her fair share of giggles, puzzled faces, and enthusiastic claps. She was really excited when the Chipettes started singing my "Three Little Birds" song that I have been singing to Maya since she was a newborn baby. She turned a looked at me with these super wide eyes and exclaimed, "That's you savorite song!!" She repeated that a few times, each time just as excited as the first. That was MY favorite part of the movie.
Maya did have her favorite movie theater snack, "poptorn" with some "wemonade" to wash it down. We made one successful trip to the potty, mid-show. She refused to use her Dora portable potty seat, which I was fine with me. Hopefully soon I can quit lugging the seat around in the diaper bag! When she emerged from the bathroom stall, she announced to everyone listening, "I DID IT!! I DID IT!!" I couldn't be more proud. She's doing SO well! When the movie was over and after we took one more potty break, I took Maya on the Carousel for a ride. I think it was the fastest carousel in the world! I actually had to brace myself while I held Maya securely on the horse! I was a little dizzy, and I think Will would have been sick, for sure! It's a good thing he opted out of the ride! Though her timing was sometimes off (due to the high speeds!), every time we went by Will, Maya would wave and wave. It really was a fun carousel!

After we left the theater, we headed to the Grand Traverse Pie Company, where Maya picked out carrot cake for dinner. What a great choice. I tasted it, and it was AWESOME! She also used the potty there (sans the Dora seat), after discussing it with these two older ladies who were sitting near us and marching through the restaurant, telling everyone, "I'm doe-ing pee-pee. I'm doe-ing pee-pee." Ahhh.... gotta love kids!

It was a fantastic Maya/Mommy/Daddy date! Hopefully a new kid's movie will come out in the next couple of months, so we can do it again!

No Hablo Espanol

"Somebody help me out here! I cannot for the life of me figure out what the heck this book says!"
Silly Buddy, that's "Spanish for Health Care Professionals", and you don't know Spanish!! How about we take this language thing one step at a time? Let's focus on English first, deal?!

Buddy's 1st Trip to the Pool (And Other Water Adventures)

Buddy FINALLY got to go to the pool today!! I was so sad when I realized that he reached his 1st birthday (and beyond) without a single trip to the pool. Poor kid. The YMCA (or CMI, as Maya was calling it) had open family swim time in the morning, so we pushed Liam through his nap and headed out for some fun. I expected him to be pretty excited about getting in the water, but as you can plainly see from the picture with Will, he was not so much. Once I got into the water, it was easy to see why. It was lukewarm at best, not the bathwater warm I was hoping for. Maya didn't care at all and was very eager to get wet. She was REALLY clingy at first, wanting to climb on top of us to feel safe in the water. I finally pried her off of me and put a noodle under her arms and chest. I held onto her belly and back, and she immediately relaxed. She spent the rest of the time splashing, kicking, "suming" (swimming, which she kept telling us to let go of her!), and jumping in off the side. Fun as usual for Maya!

Liam loosened up after some games of "The Grand Old Duke of York", where I jumped up and down with him every time is says "up" or "down" in the song. We also did some spinning around, which makes him laugh on land or at sea. You can see that after some time, he decided the pool was pretty fun...
Right after this was taken, we retreated to the FREEZING cold locker rooms to shower and dress. I was holding Liam up on the changing table (still naked at this point, um, him, not me), when all of a sudden, he let loose and peed ALL over the floor! Maya was holding a towel, so I made a quick attempt to block the stream with the towel. It was too late. Awesome! I was just glad that Maya was standing where she was... he narrowly missed peeing on her head by inches! Holy cow, can you imagine?? She would have been ticked! Whew! Both kids were much happier once they were finally dressed in warm clothes and heading out of the locker room. By the way, Maya used the "big girl potty" without her Dora seat! Yippee!!

Our OTHER water adventure occurred tonight in the bathtub. The kids had showered at the Y, but Maya wanted to play in the bath for fun. Both kids were sitting in the tub, when I looked at Liam and noticed his face was a little red. Uh-oh. Suddenly, there was poop floating in the tub! Ah, crap!! I grabbed Buddy, Will grabbed Maya, and we yanked them out of the water before they got too contaminated. Maya was NOT impressed. Liam didn't seem to mind at all! In fact, as soon as Liam got out of the tub, he peed all over the floor! No, I'm not joking!! Will took over diapering and dressing duties, while I started the nasty process of cleaning out the tub. Blech. My saving grace was when Maya returned, and after looking at the poop in the tub for a minute, she informed me, "a turtle, a seahorse, and a dolphin!" I asked her, "those animals did that?" She pointed a one of the poops in question, and said, "No. Dare's a turtle, wight dare!" Oh, my... I suppose from her angle it did, in fact, look like a turtle! How very perceptive of her! No matter how hard I tried, though, I just couldn't make out the dolphin or the seahorse, so I'm not sure how she came up with those ones! Hahaha...

Fostering Independence

Much like persistence is the key to success in manipulating a button, it is also the key to success in potty training. Oh, potty training. I knew it would be trouble from the start. I knew, before we even began, that I would not have the patience for it. I was SO right! We have been training now for three and a half weeks, and I think I FINALLY had a break through last night. I was chatting with Dee on the phone when it hit me that she has been TOTALLY manipulating me! She knows when she needs to go. She can pull her pants up and down. She can wipe. She can wash and dry her hands. She can do ALL of these things with little-to-no assistance. There is absolutely NO reason that she should still be peeing in her pull-up. She is CHOOSING not to go on the potty! SHE is smarter than ME! I don't know why it took so long for me to figure this out. Maybe I was in denial. I don't know. Once I was able to figure this out and admit that it was a fact, I wracked my brain to figure out how to get one step ahead of her again... to gain CONTROL once and for all!

I dug deep into my memory of all of my psychology classes, child development classes, and most importantly, my parenting magazines. : ) I came up with a plan that I think will be successful and get us back down the path toward ditching diapers for good. Maya has always been very laid back when it comes to getting dressed. I rarely give her an option, and I'd say 99.5 percent of the time, I just grab some clothes and throw them on her. She never resists, and I never open the door for wardrobe discussion. She wears what I choose. End of story. Now, don't get me wrong. I give her LOTS of choices throughout the day, it's just that it never occurred to me to let her have control over clothing choices, which in my head falls under "bigger girl" choices. Well, today, I decided to change that completely. When she woke up from her nap, I asked her if she wanted to wear some big-girl-undies for the rest of the day, and her face lit up like she was just allowed the most sacred of privileges. I pulled them all out of her dresser drawer, and she wanted to take them downstairs. We found a special box for them, and she toted the box down the stairs, like she was carrying gold. I didn't know up until this point that the underwear were so special! I've been saying, "Once you poop and pee in the potty all the time, you can start wearing big-girl-underwear!" She never really acts like she cares and usually says something like, "I wery wike peeing in my puw-ups." (I very like peeing in my Pull-ups.) Geesh... seriously??? With this attitude, I don't know if she'll EVER be trained!!! There have been many moments that I have been tempted to put her back in a diaper and tell her that she's welcome to wear them to college because I'm tired of the constant battle! I know, it's SO dramatic, but you have to understand how much I HATE potty training! It's only worth it because, well, I think everybody KNOWS why it's worth it. The only thing that I do like about it is the look of pride and satisfaction on her face when she's done a really great job and peed on the potty. That is priceless. Manipulating me to have control over this whole situation... not so priceless (well, maybe for her!).

Anyway, once she carefully picked out a pair of underwear, I had her try on a couple pairs of easy-on, easy-off, good-for-potty-training pants that I had bought for her earlier in the day. She loved them, but they were too big. Grrrr.... She's just so tiny, it's really hard to find pants that are skinny enough to fit her waist but long enough to cover her legs/ankles. These were both size 3T, and they were practically falling off of her. When I told her that we had to take them back to get a smaller size she said, "But, I'm bigger!" Awww... that poor girl. She thinks that she's a big girl because she's a "big girl"! I had to explain that we had to get pants that fit because these ones would fall off her booty. She smiled and agreed, "I don't want them faw off my BOOty!" Whew... I told her she could keep the shirt, which reads, "I want chocolate ice cream and cookies (for dinner)." That is SO her! I just had to get that one for her! I told her that I was going to run back upstairs to grab some other pants for her, and she decided she wanted to go. I opened her pants drawer, reached in to pull out of a pair of pants, and before I could grab mine, she grabbed a different pair (jeans) and announced that she wanted to wear her belt. Not the most conducive outfit for potty training, but that's what she wanted to wear! I put the belt on loose enough, so she could still pull the pants down by herself without having to unfasten the belt. It worked. Maybe she's interested in this clothing thing after all!

Interested or not, she pooped in her underwear shortly after she got dressed. My plan of attack for that issue is to simply throw her underwear away. I'm thinking that I'll only have to throw away so many pairs of underwear before she decides that she wants to keep her underwear and will poop in the potty in order to do so. I explained that once she poops in the them, they go in the trash, and she never gets them back. She didn't seem to like that idea too much. Hopefully she'll start pooping in the potty before we run out of underwear! : )

After Buddy woke up, we headed out to the mall, with Maya in her big-girl-undies. She peed right before we left, and I reminded her a few times to let me know if she needed to go. We took the pants back to Baby GAP, and it was there that I was convinced she definitely has a "thing" for clothing! I had her try on a couple pairs of pants, and after being released from the confines of her stroller, she insisted on walking with me the rest of the time. She spent the rest of the time in the store bringing different items to me, saying she wanted to buy this or that. It was actually kind of fun to stand back and watch her explore all the different colors, patterns, and styles of clothing to choose from. Based on all the pink, flowers, ruffles, and dresses that she picked out, I'd say she's all girl! We ended up going to a few more stores then headed for home. Buddy was a trooper the entire time. He always is.

As soon as we returned home and started peeling off coats and shoes, I said, "The first order of business is to go to the potty!" Maya nodded her head in agreement and ran to the bathroom. She peed. We were gone for over 2 hours, and she didn't have a single accident. She had requested chicken nuggets for dinner, and as soon as I put the plates of food in front of the kids, I thought I had been warped into another home. The house fell silent. And STAYED that way for 5-10 minutes. Both kids were just eating. I have not witnessed this, a quiet moment that is, when a child is awake since the birth of Maya! I swear! Especially since Liam was born, and the two of them interact all the time... I seriously don't think they have ever been quiet together (without TV). It was shocking! What's more shocking is what Maya ate: 2 chicken nuggets, 4 apple slices, 6 pretzel sticks, 1/2 a cheese stick, and 4 mini cookies! I've never seen her eat like that! Liam, yes... Maya, not so much! She was hungry! Liam ate about the same (minus the pretzels, add snapea crisps and another chicken nugget), but that's normal for him.

Back to the potty training... my plan is to allow her, actually encourage her to have more independence in other areas, and to stress that she's really becoming a big girl because of all the things she can do for herself. I'm hoping that by her gaining control over other areas of her life, she will not feel the need to have control over this one thing, potty training. Once she doesn't feel like that is the ONLY thing she has control over, it won't be as important to her to maintain that control. She knows that going in the potty is what she should do, and I believe that it's what she wants to do. She'll stand right in front of me and say, "I'm pooping," and poop while she stands there then want to be changed immediately. Sometimes she'll come walking up to me, looking like she just got off a horse and say, "I peed," and want her pull-up changed. I KNOW she knows what she should do, and I truly believe that she WANTS to. She just knows that for right now, in a world where she typically doesn't have any control, and "no" and "don't" are frequently heard, SHE is the ONLY one that can make this potty training successful. It's completely up to her...
With a lot of hard work, practice, and perseverance on Maya's end and love and patience on my part, we will conquer this potty training, much like Maya conquered buttons for the first time today! She really is becoming a BIG girl!! (Notice the jeans, belt, and her new shirt peeking out from under her coat... her first hand-picked outfit. What you can't see are her black patent leather "tap sooes" (tap shoes)!)

Buddy's at the Big Boy Table!

Ahhh, yes, Buddy finally made it out of the highchair and up to the family table! I'm not sure that my judgment was so good to make this move on spaghetti and meatball night, but oh, well. He really enjoyed sitting with all of us, and I have to say, despite the mess, it was REALLY nice to have him right at the table. I mean, you can only get so close with the highchair! Here he is, just shoveling it in by the fistful...
Of course, Maya wanted to sit right next to her Buddy. She also decided to forgo the fork and eat like "Wady an da Tamp". (Lady and the Tramp) Hey, so long as she's eating, she could suck spaghetti noodles without a fork whenever she wants to!
To top off dinner, Buddy got to eat his very first brownie! Yummy... brownies. I can't eat brownies because I gave up chocolate for Lent, and now all of a sudden they are being baked and sent to our house! What the heck?! I'm pretty sure that much like me, Buddy will never meet a brownie he doesn't like.
Really, having Liam in this highchair doesn't make much more of a mess than the other highchair. It's fun to share the table with him! He's MUCH more playful and interactive now!

"The Princess and the Frog"

Amy and I took Maya and Lydia to their first official full-length movie theater experience, a 4:30pm showing of "The Princess and the Frog" in Muskegon at the Plaza 1 & 2 Theater on Henry Street. The theater is quite old and run down, compared to newer theaters with stadium seating and high-backed chairs. This theater reminded me of the theaters in Phoenix... back in the day. Of course, I'm sure all those theaters have been remodeled by now. Anyway, the Plaza 1 & 2 Theater is a cool concept. They get some of the movies that have been in the theaters for quite a while before they go to rental, and they charge a minimal fee for the show. It cost Maya and I $5.00 to see the movie. At $5.50, her snack pack cost more than double the price of her ticket! I got a medium drink for $4.50 (what a rip-off!), so our whole "girl's night out" date cost us $15.00. Not too bad, and I would have paid much, much more.

She really enjoyed the movie, except for the "shadow man", which was the scary villain. There was an actual villain plus all these shadowy, monster-like figures that were just as frightening as the villain! Disney always manages to create villains that are every bit as scary as the princesses are beautiful. Why?! Now, pretty much all she'll talk about is the "shadow man" and how "I don't wike dat mean duy". I quickly redirect her to remember the pretty Princess Tiana, the cute frogs, or the funny alligator. And the MUSIC! It was fabulous!! It was all jazz, and every time a song came on, Maya was on her feet, dancing and bee-bopping to the beat. It was so cute. That was my favorite part of the movie, just watching her boogie down! Maya enjoyed her very own snack pack, with "poptorn", graham cracker bears, and lemonade. The "poptorn" was her favorite movie snack... like mother, like daughter!

Little Lady Conversations

Tonight, we took Maya's little friend, Lydia, with us to gymnastics. It was the last day of this session, so they encouraged everyone to bring a friend to class. We dropped off Liam in exchange for Lydia, so the girls rode together in the backseat of the truck. I wish we could have recorded their conversation during the entire ride. You can only imagine what a 2 1/2 year old and 3 1/2 year old have to talk about for 15 minutes... oh, boy, was it funny! Maya would ask Lydia, "Where's your dowhouse?" Lydia would say, "At my house!" I don't know how many times we heard that, then they got into a discussion about Maya getting a dollhouse. Lydia said she has TWO dollhouses, so Maya then needed two dollhouses. I told her we would put it on her Christmas list. Lucky for us, she's still young enough that tactic actually works! At one point, Maya says, "You know what else?" I replied, "No. What?" She goes, "I don't know, eider." (giggle, sigh, little smile) She is too darn cute!!

Class went great, and Lydia really seemed to enjoy herself. Maya had a great time, showing Lydia the ropes, so to speak. They ended the class with some parachute play, which I haven't seen before, so that was cool. At one point, they were supposed to fill the chute with air, then hold it down in front of them, so there would be a big mountain in the middle of all the kids. The kids were to stay on the outside of the parachute. They counted to 3, the parachute went up, and just before it came back down, two little bodies scampered into the parachute mountain. Who do you think they belonged to? You guessed it, Lydia and Maya were M.I.A. Every once in a while, I could see one of their hands pushing against the inside of the chute. Either the teachers didn't notice or didn't care, but they never made them come out. I only started to worry when some of the kids started stepping on the chute to get the air out of it, but both girls resurfaced on the outside completely unscathed.

On the way home, they got into a little squabble about who was bigger. Lydia says, "I'm taller." Maya replies, "I'm wery, WERY bigger!" Lydia must have shaken her head "no" because Maya dropped her head down and began to pout. I asked her what was wrong, and she explained, "Yihia (Lydia) says I'm not bigger." I said, "Well, you BOTH must be big to be big sisters, right?" Maya liked that, but Lydia wasn't so sure. Lydia is definitely bigger than Maya, but not in Maya's eyes! I tried to soften the blow by reminding Maya that she is bigger than Charlie and Liam. She seemed to like that. Sadly, that will probably be short-lived because I bet those boys will be bigger than Maya inside of this next year. I can't wait to have the girls together again. Their conversations are hilarious!

Ash Wednesday

Look at what Buddy can do!! He's 13 1/2 months, and he's figured out how to climb onto everything! His determination to keep up with Maya, coupled with the fact that he's strong enough and tall enough to physically match her every move, makes him a TOTAL danger to himself! Just like Maya, he has no fear. Now, the race is on to see who ends up in a cast first (my money's on Liam)... ugh, I loathe the thought!

Here they are, just climbing on a Christmas storage box that STILL needs to be put away. Yes, it will be a long night. We have Mom's Club play group here tomorrow morning, so I need to get on this stuff! Well, that and fact that it's the middle of February already! News flash: Christmas is OVER!
I'm so happy that we decided to get this play set for the kids for Christmas this year. They are on it constantly whenever we're in the basement. It's a huge hit! In the last week, Liam has worked up the courage to go down the slide all by himself. Just this week, Maya has started sitting at the bottom of the slide, holding her hands out, saying, "I dot chu, Buddy!"
He slides down, crashing into her, and they giggle every single time...
Maya has invented a new way to go down the slide, head-first (which I'm going on record as saying that I am NOT crazy about this) and on her back. She loves it!Another favorite past time in our house is playing "library girl", which entails taking the books off of the shelves in Will's office. Typically, a library girl would be found re-shelving the books, but not in this library...
And here's our little "library boy"...
After careful consideration and dozens of book pushed to the floor, they climbed into the big, comfy chair and settled in for a little "light" reading...
The garbage man is here!! Garbage day is a HUGE hit. The kids run to the window and watch the truck go around the cul-de-sac...
Liam listens intently as Maya explains the finer points of trash collection. Likely, he is taking it all in as helpful information to assist him when he plays "garbage boy". That's what Maya says when I am yelling at Liam to get out of the trash can. "Mommy, Buddy's being garbage boy!" Oh, yeah, I forgot. Then by all means, take out those egg shells and raw meat scraps with your bare hands... heeheehee... just kidding!

On another note, today is the first time I have observed Ash Wednesday. Since joining the Presbyterian church, I have not had the time or desire to learn about some of their rituals. I'm just being honest. Really, after Liam was born, I think we went to church (maybe) five times that whole first year. It just wasn't a priority. Now, things are much different. I have the time. I have the desire. I called my friend (and pastor), Jen, to find out about these different holy days... Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and found out that all of these days, lead up to the main event, Easter Sunday. Tonight, Will and I took turns going to church to observe Ash Wednesday in preparation of the Lenten season. I was first to go, and when I entered the sanctuary, the lights were off, there was soft meditative music playing, and Jen was sitting in the first row of pews, waiting to share Communion with anyone who wanted to partake. As I took my place in the pew, I didn't really know what to expect. This season is about cleansing, starting over, recognizing how we've strayed from God, and refocusing our lives back to Him. Pretty powerful stuff. I sat there quietly and thought about my short-comings as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a friend, and I gave thanks for all the MANY blessings in my life. Often, being in church stirs up a lot of emotion in me, and I'm not sure why. Like many times before, the flood gates opened, and tears just started pouring out. My struggle lies in my inability to relinquish control to God. I'm a natural worrier, a caregiver, and most often, I tend to bear the weight of the world on my shoulders. As I sat in that pew, I tried so very hard to just "turn it all over to God," and the resulting tears came from the realization and shame that even in church, I struggle with that concept. As I made my way to the front of the church (with hot tears still streaming down my face), I was comforted with Jen's open arms, a warm embrace between good friends. I felt that without saying a word, she understood. She reminded me of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, so I could have forgiveness. I ate the bread and drank the juice, and then she placed the sign on the cross on my forehead with ashes, which is done to remind us of our own mortality (another tear-inducing topic for me). We embraced again, and she whispered to me, "I'm so glad you're my friend," and all I could choke out was a heartfelt, "Me, too." I'm so thankful for the people that have been placed in my life, Jen being one of many. Having the opportunity to sit and reflect on my life and relationships was a great thing for me. It took some time, but I came to realize that leaning on God is what I need to be doing this season and for the rest of my life. I'm going to make a more conscience effort to do just that... let God have control. I'm anxious to find out how it feels to live without that weight on my shoulders. (As an aside, I also gave up Facebook, fast-food, take-out, and chocolate... for the next 40 days. I also prayed for LOTS of patience. I can always use more of that, especially now that we're potty training.)

Now, to lighten the mood...
Tonight, Maya was getting ready for bed, putting on her Ariel socks, and told me that I needed Ariel on my socks, too. I agreed and said, "Yeah, Mommy's socks are just plain white. They're pretty boring." She went on about her business, and we began reading some bedtime stories.

Fast-forward about 10 minutes... I had just finished reading "Mother Goose", and she went to the bookshelf to pick out the next book in the line-up. She picked up some Little Golden Book off the shelf and said, "Dis book's boring," and put it in the box with her wipes, next to the bookshelf. She picked up another Little Golden Book off the shelf and said, "Dis book's boring, too," and placed it with the other "boring" book in the box of misfit books. Since I've NEVER heard Maya call anything "boring" before, I was totally taken off-guard, so I asked, "That book is boring?" She replied, "Yeah, juss wike your socks." I cracked up!! I was laughing harder than I'd laughed all day, maybe all week. I never would have guessed that nonchalant statement about the design (or lack thereof) of my socks would resurface just moments later, in a description about her books! Oh my goodness... that girl is just too much sometimes!

Chicago MARATHON!

Guess what?? I'm running in the Chicago Marathon!! Buddy looks as though to say, "Say, what??"...That's right!! I am officially registered as of tonight, so there's no turning back now. I will be running as a competitor in the Chicago Marathon on October 10, 2010 (10.10.10 cool, huh?), and I'm super excited and proud of myself for committing to this HUGE endeavor! It will be such an accomplishment to cross the finish line!
Oh, look! There's one of my biggest fans right now! I can already hear it, "Yay, Mama! Go, go, go!!" I can't wait to hear Maya cheering, "C-M-O, Mahco, Mahco, watch him go!" (This is from Angelina Ballerina, where Marco runs in a marathon, and Angelina makes up a cheer for him. Maya chants this all the time!) If that's not motivation, I don't know what is!