Happy 10th Birthday, Maia!

My first-born has forever left the single digits behind; she's practically a woman now. I don't know that I've ever felt so old!

My Maia's brain is amazing. She is very detail-oriented. If she tells you about an episode of The Wizards of Waverly Place, Pucca or another of her favorite shows, get ready to listen for a full twenty minutes. She will recite all the dialog, almost verbatim. It's amazing (and more than a little time-consuming). Her working memory is astounding.


I love her sense of humor. The girl is a nut! She is a silly thing. She is also very compassionate. She tries to put an end to anything she perceives as injustice (this sometimes gets her into trouble with her parents when she butts in while we are discipling one of her siblings).

When we were expecting Maia, my Michael and I couldn't agree on any names. We did find out in advance that she was a girl, so we knew we could narrow our search that much. Somehow, that didn't help. I liked Emma; Michael liked Emily. We just didn't see eye-to-eye on any names. Then, one day we were sitting in good old Carousel Ice Cream in Provo, eating our 1/2 sandwich specials, and I suggested "Maia." Michael thought I was kidding because he truly did not believe that I could have suggested a name he actually liked. I assured him that I was serious about the name. He tossed his napkin down with a "Now you're talking!" and the deal was done. We never discussed baby names again. We were so pleased that we found one we both liked.

I've never been a fabulous speller so I wasn't sure how to spell it. We were pretty poor and I didn't see the point in buying a baby name book when we already had a name, so I went into a maternity store and opened one of the books lying by the check-out. That particular book listed "Maia" first, in bold, followed by "Maya," "Myah," "Mya" and other variations. I actually thought I was not being difficult by choosing the spelling I did. Of course, now I know that "Maya" is the much more popular spelling. Whatever. I still like Maia's spelling. Little did I know that I was naming her a super popular name. Our neighbor two doors down has a Maya and last year there was a Mi'a in her fourth-grade class!


For her birthday this year, Maia was pleased to receive 2 games for her newly-self-purchased Nintendo DS Lite (all her money went to purchasing the actual device and she had none left to get any games to play on it), a case for said DS and a graphic novel (comic book--I mean, really, what is the difference, people?) called Rapunzel's Revenge. She couldn't be more please with her loot.


I love this girl! She is so open and innocent. I appreciate her willingness to help me and her patience with her younger siblings. I'll keep her around for sure for at least another ten years!