Maya appears at the gate that blocks my office from the rest of the house. Outside?

No, honey, not outside yet. Since you rubbed yogurt in your hair, you need a bath before getting dressed.

(Let’s pretend for a moment that it isn’t weird that I’m still in the office while my sticky child wanders the house.)

Maya tosses herself deliberately on the floor, in protest. She doesn’t even bother to cry. As soon as I look back to the computer screen, she wanders off, knowing the tantrum just isn’t worth the problem. I think I’m getting the hang of this whole toddler thing.

Guess I’d better go wash her up…

Maya peruses the pages of an issue of National Geographic.

Now that I have a hardware-installed baby gate at the top of the deck stairs, Maya gets to play outside. Play = walk back and forth…then run back and forth…then chase the dogs back and forth.