"Don'T Come In Here!"

Any parent (or grandparent) dreads hearing a pre-school age child tell you "Don't come in here!" Because you know, deep down inside that you aren't going to like what you will behold once you do set foot across that threshold.

This afternoon, Mandy had to go to the Pizza Shop (where she is now gainfully employed) to pick up her pay check and being the sweet, loving mother she is -knowing if she doesn't take Maya with her Maya will scream bloody blue murder -she took Maya along.

After picking up her check, a stop at the bank, then the grocery store and before coming home, they went to the garage where Bill works to deliver a Mountain Dew to him and that is where the whole trip went south.

Maya wanted to stay at the garage and "help Daddy work." Bill wasn't in favor of that idea -neither was Mandy so Maya lost out on that request. But, the whole way home, Mandy says Maya kicked the back of the passenger seat in front of her, alternated between crying and screaming her terrible plight, announced loudly that she no longer loves Mommy or Gram or Kurtis or Katie -only Daddy. So by the time they got home, Mandy had heard enough and she carried her in, directly upstairs to her room where she deposited her. This was followed by about five minutes more of the screaming, ranting, wailing. Then suddenly, all was quiet.

When Kate came down ready to leave to go to school for the football game -she's a majorette in the band so for her to be at the game was a command performance, ya know -she announced to Mandy that Maya had been quite busy upstairs -tossing clothes, toys -whatever -out of her room into the hall.

When Mandy returned from taking Kate to the school, she went up to check on Maya -who by the way, was still very quiet upstairs. When she came down she told me Maya had been dragging clothes out of drawers, trying clothes on (hers and Kurt's too) plus she had two bandaids on her face -one on each cheek. When Mandy asked why she had the bandaids on her cheeks, Maya said it was because "My cheeks hurt from my tears." Talk about a pity party going on full-steam huh? Then Mandy noticed Maya had taken the blood pressure cuff from her little doctor kit and had it on her arm. "Why is that on your arm, Maya?" Because my arm hurts me, was her response to that query.

We left her upstairs with orders she was to clean up her mess and she told Mandy she would do that -"Later." Meanwhile, downstairs it was peace and quiet while I cooked supper and when it was ready, someone went upstairs and brought Maya down to sit up to the table.

I sit at the end, at the head of the table and Maya sits to my left -perpendicular, I guess you would say. I glanced at her and saw the bandaids still on her face and asked her why she had them on there -did she hurt herself. "Yes, I hurted myself when I was angry."

After supper, Mandy was doing up the dishes and we noticed it was quiet here again. Calling for Maya to appear in the living room, as I stood up to look for her, she came running out of the bathroom and stopped at the entrance to the living room, with her hand extended toward me in the traffic cop's gesture to "STOP!" Then she told me "No, no. Don't come in here."

One quick glance and I could see a shiny substance smeared on her legs so I asked her what she had on her legs. She tried to tell me "nothing" but I knew better. Even without my glasses on, I definitely knew better.

Maya walked towards the kitchen so Mandy could observe her appearance and Mandy -in a very frustrated tone of voice -told Maya to "Please stop messing around and smearing shit all over the place."

The response to that was "This not shit."

Yeah, very true -in the literal sense. How can you argue with logic like that?

Here's a couple of photos now so you can see how the afternoon into evening hours progressed here today.

Let the room trashing begin!
In this photo below, you can see Maya is in training now for future sessions in store dressing rooms -a quick study she is on how best to make yourself a favorite of all retail clerks!

Here we have the room of Maya's big sister -her mentor apparently!

Yet another view of Kate's room (that would be the 16, almost 17-year-old.) I guess this could be called "Heriditary Housekeeping" -right?

Here's the outfit Maya chose to wear for dining in style tonight. What you can't see under the skirt though are the little boys "superman" training pants (belonging to Kurtis) that she is also wearing. Oh, to have the lovely, very coordinated look, huh? Tres, tres, vogue!


Here's Maya, showing off the lotion she had smeared on her legs. Unfortunately, it doesn't glisten as much when photographed as it does "in person."
And here she is, showing the lotion she recommends for smooth skin, lovely legs. Also, you can see the remnants of one of the bandaids she had strategically placed on her cheek -you know, the ones that hurt from her tears!