Maria's quite the busy little bee, in gym class one day a week and art class another.  We've also hit both the zoos in our area with plans to go back lots.  She seems to prefer Lincoln Park where the penguins (pingus) can swim right past her giggling squealing face!  She also likes the underwater viewing of the sea lions.  When we were there last week a giant gorilla was sitting right in front of the window, Maria walked right up to him (her?) and they stared at each other for a long time.  When the gorilla got up and started walking away Little Miss Bossy shouted out "Come back here, monkey!"

Gym class is going well, though Maria's not too interested in sitting for circle time she loves the activities.  This past week she was swinging from a trapeze bar and loving every minute of it.  And she has really enjoyed getting into things at art class.  She LOVES glue and glue sticks and painting can keep her interest for quite some time.  It's so much fun to watch her interacting with the other kids in tboth classes and of course it's great to see the things she makes in art.

We've had another explosion of vocabulaty around here.  Now our little chatterbox is talking pretty much non-stop frmo the moment she wakes up in the morning til she falls asleep at night.  One of her newer phrases "guess what?" has us cracking up.  And she tells knock knock jokes, sort of....she'll say "knock, knock.....banana whoooo?"  She's been listening to Doug's jokes and since he gets a laugh she wants to tell them, too.  We've also been introdiced to the toddler anthem of "mine, Mine, MINE!"  Ah the joys.

Today we're off to a (kinda) local Strawberry Festival where she should be in heaven since she loves strawberries.  On the agenda: chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry donuts, and strawberry smoothies while we listen to the music and watch the balloon animal makers and maybe, just maybe get a caricature (sp?) of our little lady.